Hook Runner
by ShizukaRakugaki44
Summary: Twenty years after the events of FNaF 3, Fazbear Entertainment creates a new chain of restaurants called Freddy's Café where the animatronics are humanized. However, some of them escape and so they are hunted down. Enter Max Schmidt, the son of Mike Schmidt, who's sent to find the escaped Toy Models and their leader Foxy. However, his growing love for Toy Chica complicates things.
1. Chapter 1: Missing Toys

**So after two successful fan-fictions based on video games like** _ **Team Fortress 2**_ **and** _ **Sonic**_ **, I** **'** **ve decided to try my hand at another successful game series:** _ **Five Nights at Freddy**_ _ **'**_ _ **s**_ **! This story takes place 20 years after the events of** _ **FNaF 3**_ **and it more or less follows the same plot as Ridley Scott** **'** **s movie** _ **Blade Runner**_ **which is based on a novel by science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick called** _ **Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?**_ **If none of you are familiar with either of these works, don** **'** **t worry! You don** **'** **t have to know them to understand what** **'** **s going on!**

Chapter 1: Missing Toys

" _Hello? Max Schmidt?_ " said a voice coming from a small wristwatch worn by a man in his late thirties.

"What is it, Phone Guy?" The man asked.

" _It_ _'_ _s Jared Fitzgerald,_ " replied the Phone Guy. " _He was sent to_ _'_ _dismantle_ _'_ _a group of Animatronics that escaped from the local Freddy_ _'_ _s C_ _af_ _é_ _a few days ago. We just found his body._ "

"Is he dead?" Max wondered.

" _No, but h_ _is frontal lobe is completely missing._ "

"Do you know what caused it?"

" _The only clue is fang-marks located along the ridge of his head, meaning his frontal lobe was either torn out by some wild animal or_ _—_

"An Animatronic killed him," Max interrupted.

" _That_ _'_ _s what we_ _'_ _re thinking, too._ " The Phone Guy paused and then said, " _He was found inside a closet at the back of an abandoned Fredbear_ _'_ _s Diner. The demolition crew discovered him just as they were ready to tear the place down and called the police. But Fazbear Entertainment intercepted the call and sent it to us, the Night Watch Repairmen._ "

"I see, so what am I supposed to do about it?"

" _You_ _'_ _re going to take over Jared_ _'_ _s job and pick up where he left off._ "

Max gulped and said, "Can't you send someone else?"

" _No can_ _'_ _t do. Franz Smith is looking for a couple of runaway Animatronics in another town so he won_ _'_ _t be back for at least a week._ "

In response, Max sighed and asked, "How much was Jared getting paid?"

" _6,000 dollars._ "

An audibly loud whistle escaped Max's lips. "That's a lot of money."

" _I know, and there_ _'_ _s a good reason for it. The Animatronics Jared was tracking down are more advanced than the kind we_ _'_ _ve been dealing with lately._ "

"What model are they?"

" _Fazbear Entertainment referred to them as Toy Models. They_ _'_ _re equipped with facial scanners that are programmed to recognize potential threats and their artificial skin is tougher than the Original Models are._ "

"How many are there?"

" _I_ _'_ _m not sure. You_ _'_ _ll have to ask Fred_ _Bernstein the Third, the current owner of Fazbear Entertainment, about the details._ "

"Where does he live?"

" _In an isolated house outside of town._ "

"Okay, give me the address and I'll be there by this afternoon."

###

After taking an electric train out of the crowded city he called home, Max found a slick black hover-car waiting for him at the station. The driver said Fred Bernstein the Third had gotten wind of Max's arrival and thus was expecting him. Reluctantly, Max got into the backseat of the car and sat back as the driver steered the hover-car away from the station up a dirt path till he came to a large cabin that was the size of a small hotel. Inside, Max was surprised to see lavish furnishings all around the cabin and a little man at the center of it all wearing a shiny golden suit, a balding head, and slippers that sparkled gold.

"Mr. Schmidt, I presume?" asked the little man who stepped forward to shake Max's hand.

"I was told you were expecting me, Fred Bernstein the Third," Max said, keeping his hands in his pockets.

"Ah, yes, about that," the little man said noticing where Max's hands were. "When Jared didn't report back to us, we got worried, and learned that a new Repairman was being sent up here."

"Why did you go through the effort of doing that?" Max said shrugging his shoulders. "I'm just a simple Repairman, after all."

"True, but the nature of your job forces us to be more cautious than usual," Fred Bernstein the Third said nervously. "Can you imagine what would happen if people found out that the workers at every Freddy's Café in the entire nation were actually robots disguised as humans?"

"I know it'll be bad for business, given your company's past history with Animatronics," replied Max.

"Then I assume you're quite familiar with what our company has gone through, given your father's brief profession as a security guard at one of our previous restaurant chains," Fred Bernstein the Third said snidely.

Max gave Fred an odd look. "I'm only familiar with the basics. My father never really talked about his experience at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza."

"Oh, I see," Fred Bernstein the Third gave a small cough. "I'm sorry for assuming."

"It was a natural assumption, giving my profession," said Max.

"Of course," responded Fred Bernstein the Third. "How's Jared?"

"Not good, I'm told. Got his frontal lobe bitten off."

"How dreadful!"

"We think it was one of the Animatronics he was chasing. I was told by my boss that they're of the 'Toy Model'. Does that ring a bell?"

"Yes, we're manufacturing a new brand of Animatronics named after the ones from the second Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. We were testing them in a Freddy's Café within town and for the first few days they were working perfectly fine. But then some of the Original Models that were training the Toys started putting ideas in their heads and we believe that's what led them to escape in the first place."

"What kind of ideas?"

"Nothing more than childish notions and fantasies about a 'Purple Man' or something."

"But they're robots. They don't understand concepts like fantasy and superstition."

"You'd be surprised what these Toy Models are capable of. Not only can they logically deduct threats based on circumstances and human records stored in their brains, but also they can grasp vague concepts like dreams and actually believe in them if they're suggested long enough."

"Then how did the Original Models give the Toys these ideas?"

"I'm not sure. Perhaps there was a glitch in their systems at the time."

"Or maybe there's something you're not telling me."

"Do you want to be paid 6,000 dollars or not?"

"Yes, but—

"Then I would suggest that you not question me about my knowledge on the matter and 'dismantle' those five Animatronics as soon as possible."

"Five? I'm aware there are a total of six characters in the Toy Model series."

"Only five of the six Toy Model Animatronics escaped, but two of the Original Models fled with them. I was told that Jared had eliminated one Original Model and one Toy Model before going after the others."

"Which ones were eliminated?"

A pair of heels were heard from above followed by a female voice that said, "Their names were Bonnie and Toy Freddy."

Max and Fred looked up at the landing and saw a tall woman descending the stairs next to it. She had a good looking figure, with short blonde hair tied up behind her oval head, blue eyes that seemed to be gazing elsewhere, wearing a yellow business suit, a matching knee-length skirt, and orange heels.

"Chichi," Fred exclaimed. "How long have you been listening?"

"Since the conversation started," replied the woman as she reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Who's this?" Max said, noticing the woman's business suit was unbuttoned near the top so her enormous breasts were visible underneath.

"My niece, Chichi," Fred said waving his hand toward the woman. "She also serves as my secretary so she's quite familiar with our company's problems involving runaway Animatronics."

"I see," Max said as he noticed Chichi staring at him. "Must be nice having an uncle who owns an entire chain of coffee-shops across the nation."

Chichi lit her cigarette with a matchbox that had the image of a cupcake on it and after a short puff she said, "It pays well. How much money do you make?"

"About 500 dollars per Animatronic," Max answered.

"How do you catch them, or 'dismantle' them as my uncle puts it?" Chichi asked.

"We subject who we suspect to be an Animatronic to a Fazbear Policy Test, which helps us determine if that person really is an Animatronic or not."

"In what way?"

"It depends on the answers the person gives."

Chichi looked at Fred, who nodded, then she turned her attention back to Max. "If you don't mind, I'd like to try this Fazbear Policy Test."

Max gave Chichi a confused stare. "Why, Miss Bernstein?"

"Because I'm curious. You have nothing to lose since I'm not an Animatronic."

"She's got a point, you know," Fred added.

After scratching the back of his head for a few seconds, Max sighed. "All right, then let's get stared, Miss Bernstein."

As Max walked over toward the dining table in the middle of the cabin, Chichi followed while Fred watched them both with his hands folded.

"All right, let me get set up first," Max asked as he took out a small black box with an attached microphone and placed it on the table between him and Chichi.

"What is that?" Chichi said looking at it.

"It's a device that picks up your voice and analyzes it," Max replied as he picked up the wire that came from the box and attached it to an electronic notepad which showed the questions on a screen below a still line.

"Are you ready to begin the test, Miss Bernstein?" Max said making eye-contact with Chichi.

Chichi nodded in turn and took another drag on her cigarette.

To be continued...


	2. Chapter 2: Deal Breaker

Chapter 2: Deal Breaker

"You're a small child inside a restaurant. A stranger wearing a suit asks you to follow him. What do you do?" Max Schmidt asked, reading from the list of questions on his screen.

"Are we talking about a business suit?" asked Chichi Bernstein.

"It could be any kind of suit you imagine."

"Then what's the restaurant? It's hard to picture the suit if I don't know what kind of restaurant we're talking about."

"Think of a place that's mostly oriented toward kids."

"Like Freddy Fazbear's Pizza?"

Max hesitated and said, "Something like that."

Chichi took another drag on her cigarette and said, "Then I wouldn't follow him. My mother always told me to never go with strangers."

As Chichi spoke, the line on Max's electronic notebook moved in accordance to her voice as numbers flashed below it. Max then scrolled down on the notebook and picked another question. "You're working at a place that requires all employees to wear a certain uniform. However, you see someone not wearing the proper uniform during work hours. Do you pester that person or leave him alone?"

"Well, if it's against the rules to not wear a uniform, then I would tell him to put it on," replied Chichi.

"You see a stranger enter your house. Do you attack him or question him?"

"Question him, like any sensible person would."

"An accident occurs at work that endangers someone's life. How do you respond?"

"That depends. If it's a customer, then I might see what I can do. But if it's an employee, then I would feel less sympathetic."

"Why?"

"Because it's not my fault if someone who knows what they're getting into gets hurt."

"Hm, interesting response," Max noticed the line wiggling and the numbers climbing. "If you knew someone was murdered at the place you work at, would you report it to the police or keep quiet?"

Chichi's eyes blinked for a moment. "I'd call the police."

"Equipment starts failing at work. Do you call a repairman to fix it or not?"

"Call the repairman, of course."

"Your job is extremely dangerous and you don't get paid until the end of the week. Would you continue working or quit?"

"I would keep working, especially if there's a lot of money involved."

The numbers responded and then Max said, "One last question, Miss Bernstein. You're working the night-shift at your workplace. You see something move but are completely unarmed. What do you do?"

"I would check it out first, and if it's threatening then I'll leave."

This last response made Max frown a little. Then he quickly turned off the notepad and tucked away the black box.

"How did I do?" Chichi asked, giving Max a smug look.

"Fine," Max said not looking directly at Chichi. "You're checked out."

"Oh, good," Chichi responded and stood up. She then walked over to Fred and said to him, "I'm going into town for a little shopping. I'll be back later tonight."

"Be careful down there," Fred said as she nodded to him on her way out the door.

Once the door was closed, Max looked to Fred with bewildered eyes. "Amazing, she's an Animatronic."

"Yes, her real name is Toy Chica, one of the new Toy Models."

"Did you implant false memories into her head?"

"We do that with all our Animatronics, Mr. Schmidt. Otherwise, the illusion that they're humans would quickly fade away."

"What are the names of the Animatronics that are still running loose?"

Fred walked over to a desk and produced a small flash-drive from the top-drawer. "Everything you need to know about them is right here."

Max reached his hand out to grab it, but Fred hesitated.

"Will you try to retrieve the Toy Models' data before 'dismantling' them?"

"Is this the same deal you made with Jared?" Max asked.

Fred didn't answer.

"I'm not your delivery boy, Mr. Bernstein. I find broken machines and destroy them. If you more concerned about your precious data, then hire some other Repairman besides me."

As Max turned to leave, Fred placed the flash-drive in Max's open hand.

"Apart from discretion, which your company excels at, I also want you to be extremely cautious. As Chichi demonstrated, the Fazbear Policy Test only works so much at identifying them."

"They why don't you give me pictures of them at work and save me the trouble?"

"Because it is against our company's policy to not reveal private information about our employees, though they are not human."

"Yeah, but these so-called employees of yours severely injured one of my comrades. It'll be a matter of time before the police show up to question you once they find out who Jared was really working for."

"I'm leaving town tomorrow, so I won't be around when the investigation gets underway. But if you have any questions, feel free to contact Chichi."

Fred then gave Max a card from his breast-pocket. Tucking away in his wallet, Max strolled out of the cabin and walked over to the black hover-car that was parked in the driveway. He got into the passenger's seat and looked up at the review mirror to see Chichi's face smiling back at him.

"Surprised?" Chichi said as she turned on the ignition which caused the car to hover.

"A little," Max said shyly as Chichi pulled the car out of the driveway onto the dirt road.

"What did you and my uncle talk about?"

"Just the names of the Animatronics I got to catch."

"Anything else?"

"Your uncle tried to make a deal with me."

"Did you take it?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"It didn't seem worth my time."

"I see."

The two didn't speak the rest of the way to the station and when Max got onboard the electric train, Chichi waved to him and her slender form disappeared in a matter of seconds.

To be continued…


	3. Chapter 3: Rabbit Stew

Chapter 3: Rabbit Stew

" _That_ _'_ _s all he gave you?_ " said the Phone Guy on the other end of Max's wrist-phone.

"Yep," Max replied, seated inside his own hover-car which was parked near a subway station in the downtown area. "Just a lousy flash-drive with general information on the Toy Animatronics and Original Models that helped them escape but nothing about their aliases."

" _But you know what they look like, right?_ "

"The blueprints show their outlines and describe their features, but there aren't any actual pictures of the Toy Animatronics."

" _That_ _'_ _s never happened before. Normally, the blueprints we receive show their faces._ "

"I know, which makes me suspect that Fred Bernstein the Third doesn't want us to find the Toy Animatronics."

" _But why would he do that?_ "

"Because they're prototypes, and if we destroy them he'll have to start from scratch. That's why he wanted me to retrieve their data before I 'dismantle' them."

" _But I imagine he also realizes what_ _'_ _ll happen if people found out about Animatronics working at Freddy_ _'_ _s C_ _af_ _é_ _._ "

"Yes, and so he's still willing to cooperate with us. After all, we're the only ones who can actually deal with these things."

" _True, though our methods aren_ _'_ _t entirely perfect._ "

"But they're the best weapons we have against these walking tin-cans with human faces." It was then that Max noticed a tall figure walking out of the subway station.

From a distance, the figure appeared to be hooded with his face obscured completely. Max then noticed a shorter figure follow behind, who was also hooded. Suspicious, Max grabbed a large gun from his glove compartment and got out of his hover-car into the pouring rain outside. He steadily approached the figures as they started to integrate themselves into the crowds that were going in and out of the subway. The short figure then looked behind, causing Max moved out of the way. He caught a glimpse of a man's face with a black eyepatch over one eye. Then the short figure nodded to the tall figure and took off down the street very quickly. Meanwhile, the tall figure looked in Max's direction and moved steadily toward him.

In turn, Max headed back to his car. But as he glanced over his shoulder, Max saw the tall figure disappear. After a brief sigh, Max turned around and felt his heart leap in this throat when the tall figure loomed before him.

"Hey," said the tall figure. "Can we talk somewhere private?"

"Who are you?" Max asked suspiciously.

"Bonetti Lepus," replied the figure. "There's a certain mob-boss I'm protecting. He noticed you were following us, and so he sent me to deal with you."

"Then you're here to kill me?" Max said, reaching for his gun inside his trench-coat pocket.

"Don't even think about it," Bonetti said, pulling a gun out from inside the sleeve of his hoodie and pointing it at Max.

A few people noticed and quickly moved away.

Max looked around nervously and said, "Maybe we should take this somewhere more isolated, where there aren't a lot of people."

"Do you know a place?" asked Bonetti.

"Yeah," Max answered. "We could take my car to it if you like."

"Fine," Bonetti said and put Max in front of him with his gun pointed into Max's back. "Make any funny movements, and I'll shoot you. Got it?"

Max nodded, and walked back to his car with Bonetti following right behind. While Max got into the driver's seat, Bonetti quickly got into the passenger's seat with his gun pointed now at Max's head.

"Drive," Bonetti ordered.

"Right," Max gulped and started the hover-car up again.

As it flew through the city, the two didn't say anything.

"Why are you wearing that hood even inside?" Max asked suddenly.

"I'd rather not say," Bonetti replied nervously.

Max shrugged. "Suit yourself."

"What do you mean?"

"It's a figure of speech. Didn't they teach you that at Freddy's Café?"

Bonetti pressed the gun closer to Max's head. "I never worked there in my entire life."

"Sure you did," Max said calmly though his heart was beating rapidly. "Next you're going to tell me that you don't have ears underneath that hood of yours."

Max abruptly stopped the car midair causing Bonetti to fall back causing the hood over his face to fall back. In the light coming from the car's dashboard, Max saw the face of a young man with medium-length blue hair, green eyes, red cheeks, and a pair of blue rabbit ears emerging from the sides of his head.

"Not exactly who I was expecting," Max said taking his gun out and aiming it between the young man's eyes. "But I guess you'll have to do. Where are the others, Toy Bonnie?"

"I'll never tell you!" Bonetti cried, pressing his gun into Max's chest. "Unless you want to die first."

"Then so be it," Max said and pulled the trigger.

An electrical pulse emanated from the gun causing Bonetti to cry out in pain as his eyes popped out of their sockets and a clear liquid oozed from his mouth. His hands then fell limp and he collapsed onto the passenger's seat. Max then felt a slight pain in his chest and noticed blood pooling near his heart.

"Son of a bitch," Max said, and attempted to drive despite the growing pain in his chest. Then he dialed a number on his wrist-watch and said, "Phone Guy?"

" _Yeah?_ " replied the muffled voice on the other hand. " _What_ _'_ _s up?_ "

"I got one of the Toy Animatronics, but he sort of shot me in the chest."

" _How bad is it?_ "

Max looked down and unbuttoned his shirt. "I'm loosing a lot of blood, but I don't think the bullet hit my heart directly."

" _That_ _'_ _s good, but what did you do with the Animatronic?_ "

"I haven't gotten rid of the body, if that's what you're asking."

" _Then get back to headquarters immediately. We don_ _'_ _t want to have you show up at a hospital with a seemingly dead person in your car._ "

"Do you know a doctor that can be discreet?" Max asked, feeling a burning pain coming on.

" _I think so. I_ _'_ _ll try contacting him, but in the meantime try to hang in there._ "

"I'll try," Max said weakly, but as he came to the nearest stoplight his eyelids drooped.

Shaking himself awake, Max ignored the burning pain and continued to drive. But the further he went, the harder it got to concentrate on the road of hover-cars in front of him. As he approached an ordinary gray building, his eyes closed and he fell against the car-wheel which honked loudly.

To be continued…


	4. Chapter 4: Old versus New

Chapter 4: Old versus New

Max woke up to the sound of a loud fan humming repeatedly near his head. He looked around and saw he was lying on a large couch inside an office space that was sparse. Apart from a water cooler in one corner and the couch Max sat on, the only other furnishing was a bedside table where the fan was located.

"Slept well, Max?"

In the doorway stood a man in a black trench-coat with an all-knowing grin on his youthful face.

"Franz," Max said trying to get up but a sudden burst of chest pains kept him down. It was then that he noticed his shirt was off and there were bandages wrapped around his torso. "I thought you were busy."

"I was, but then I heard what happened and came back," the man in the black trench-coat said.

"What about the Animatronics you were chasing?" Max asked.

"They're 'dismantled,'" answered Franz. "You know you're lucky to be alive right now. If that bullet had gone through your heart, you'd be dead."

"Who patched me up?"

"An unofficial doctor the Phone Guy knew, who's been paid to keep silent about our operations for fixing you up. You'll live, but can't be active for a few days."

Max grumbled. "But I can't afford to wait. The Animatronics I'm hunting are extremely dangerous."

"Then why not let me take over for you?"

"No, you don't know what you're dealing with. These Animatronics are smarter than previous models, and — what did you do with the Animatronic I 'dismantled'?"

"The blue Bonnie-looking Character? I took him to the Junkyard."

"Oh, I see," Max sighed with relief though it hurt his chest tremendously.

"Why are you so reluctant to let me help you? Is it the money?"

"Partially, but mostly I don't want to see you end up like Jared."

"He was too old for this job, and you knew that as much as I did. But he went anyway, and look what happened to him. I'm still at the top of my game, and you're barely hanging on at this point. So just kick back and let me handle this, Pops."

Max glared at Franz and tried to get off the couch but the pains came on him in full swing forcing him back down a second time.

"You can't even get off the couch," Franz said smirking. "Guess that Toy Bonnie really softened you up."

"How do you know that?" Max said as he endured the pain and sat up on the couch.

"I looked through that flash-drive you had. Not a lot to go on, but I could manage."

"Has the Phone Guy approved of you going in my place?"

"Not yet, but he might considering your current condition."

"I'll manage," Max replied standing up wearily. "Just stay out of my way."

"Fine," Franz said stepping aside as Max wobbled over to the coat-rack to grab his brown overcoat. "It's your funeral."

###

" _You got Toy Bonnie?_ " Chichi said sounding mildly surprised on Max's wrist-watch. " _Was he difficult to handle?_ "

"Not really," Max said though his chest started hurting again as he drove with one hand. "He got pretty cocky, and so I was able to deal with him."

" _You don_ _'_ _t sound too good,_ " Chichi noticed. " _Are you sure you_ _'_ _re all right?_ "

"Yeah, I'm fine," Max replied, hissing under his breath. "What can you tell me about The Puppet? The flash-drive information doesn't specify its gender."

" _That_ _'_ _s because it doesn_ _'_ _t have a specific gender_ ," answered Chichi. " _It can be male or female depending on what you see._ "

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Max. "How can I catch this thing if it doesn't have a particular gender?"

" _There_ _'_ _s a mask it wears that can_ _'_ _t be removed,_ " said Chichi after a pause. " _So one way it might try to blend in without drawing too much attention is by joining the local theatre._ "

"Makes sense," Max said thoughtfully. "I'll look into it."

" _Be careful, Mr. Schmidt,_ " Chichi said.

"Call me Max, Miss Bernstein."

" _All right, then I want you to call me Chichi from now on._ "

"Fine, Chichi. I will try to be careful."

The side of Chichi's mouth turned up slightly as she hung up on Max's wrist-watch.

###

At the Cat's Paw Theatre downtown, Max saw a poster for a ballet that was now playing. What drew him to look at the poster was the figure that was depicted. It was an androgynous person whose face was hidden behind a white mask with blacked-out eyes, red circles around the cheeks, purple stains, and a wide grin. Its attire consisted of a black skin-tight outfit with big white buttons, black-and-white stripes along its arms and legs, and clawed fingers.

"Pretty frightening, isn't it?" said an old man who appeared next to Max. "Not what I would expect Petrushka to look like."

"Petrushka?" Max said feeling slightly bewildered by the man's sudden appearance.

"You've never heard of _Petrushka_?" The man's eyes widened. "How old are you?"

"42," replied Max.

"Did you go to college?"

"Yeah, but I never took any theatre classes."

"Why not?"

"Because I didn't feel like it."

"No sense of artistic taste, then."

"I wouldn't say that."

"Then how would you like to see _Petrushka_ with me?"

Max's eyes blinked. "Um, why? I barely know you, sir."

"True, but I've got this extra ticket and I don't know what to do with it," the man said and pulled it out of his coat-pocket. "My wife was supposed to meet me here, but she's all tied up at work and told me to go see _Petrushka_ without her. We've heard from our friends that it's really good."

"I'll bet," said Max. "Well, I was going to meet a friend inside the theatre anyway."

"Have you got a ticket yourself?" asked the old man.

"No."

"Then take mine," the man pressed the ticket he held out into Max's hands before heading inside.

"That was weird." Max looked down at the ticket and seeing the time of the performance, he looked at his clock and then raced inside once he realized the ballet was going to start in five minutes.

To be continued…


	5. Chapter 5: Dancing Puppets

Chapter 5: Dancing Puppets

The ballet began just as Max Schmidt entered the theatre and took his seat next to the old man. It told the story of a charlatan who had created three puppets: a ballerina, a Moor, and a clown. After performing during the day, the puppets came to life at night while the old man slept. Petrushka, the clown, was in love with the ballerina and confessed his feelings for her. But the ballerina rejected him and chose to be with the Moor instead. This in turn angered Petrushka and led him to challenge the Moor to a sword-duel. Yet despite his best efforts, Petrushka gets slain by the Moor's scimitar. Then the following day, the charlatan finds Petrushka and burns his body in a fire. After that, Petrushka's spirit haunts the charlatan and dies when he's satisfied.

Throughout the performance, Max couldn't help but feel drawn to the person playing as Petrushka who was listed in the pamphlet as Marion Ester. Despite hiding her face behind a mask, she was able to convey the sorrow and tragedy of the character through her pantomime gestures and excellent dancing. It was beautifully done and so engaging to where Max felt that Marion was no longer a person but Petrushka himself. As the ballet ended and the dancers lined up to take a bow, Max was one of the first to stand up and clap the loudest when Marion's Petrushka stepped forward.

"That was spectacular, wasn't it?" asked the old man as he and Max left their seats.

"Yeah, I was pretty amazed myself," Max replied and then he suddenly remembered why he came to the theatre in the first place. "Well, I got to go meet my friend. Thanks for the ticket."

"No problem, Max Schmidt," said the old man as Max turned away. Then as the old man left the theatre he muttered, "The Phone Guy is always around to help you."

 _Marion Ester_ _…_ _marionette_ _…_ _The Puppet!_ Max thought as he raced down the stairs and headed for the theatre's dressing-rooms. He eventually found the door with Marion's name on it and knocked loudly.

" _Come in_ ," said a voice that sounded both male and female.

The door opened, and Max found himself in a dimly lit room stacked with presents, flowers, and boxes of chocolates. Then by a dressing stand sat Marion Ester herself still in costume. She looked at Max, but with a mask over her face he couldn't tell the expression she was making underneath it.

"Who are you?" Marion asked, sounding a little surprised.

"I'm Max Schmidt," Max said and showed Marion a fake police-badge he used to conduct investigations in the past. "I work for the police."

"The police?" Marion said straightening in her seat. "Did I do something wrong?"

"Not you personally," Max answered. "I just want to ask you some questions regarding the man who got his frontal lobe bitten off last week."

"Jared Fitzgerald?"

"Yes, ma'am, I take it you read the papers?"

"As often as I can," Marion said as her shoulders relaxed. "It's hard to know what's going on in the world out there when I'm working constantly."

"I can relate," Max then set up the black box with the microphone on a footstool between him and Marion while attaching it to the electronic notebook.

Marion's face turned down at the black box with the microphone and looked back at Max. "What are these things?"

"The black box records your voice and then it gets transferred onto my electronic notebook which determines whether you're telling the truth or not."

"Oh, then I should probably get into something a little more…comfortable before we get started," Marion said and moved behind a white screen. "Please don't look."

"Okay," Max said and turned around as he heard the rustling of clothes and small grunts.

While Marion was changing, Max looked around the dressing room and noticed that there weren't any pictures or items that seemed personal. Then a small black wrist-phone caught his attention, and Max suddenly remembered that Jared wore a similar one before he got hospitalized. Curious, Max moved toward the shelf where the black wrist-phone was but then he felt a pair of hands suddenly grab him around the neck from behind. He was then pushed down onto the floor, and looked up to see that Marion was crouching over him wearing the same mask but with white circles glowing inside the mask's eyeholes, a thin black-and-white striped blouse with a black bra showing underneath, black boxer briefs, and matching striped stockings but no shoes. Long silken black hair trailed down over Marion's pale shoulders as she gripped Max's neck tightly.

"Don't move, Repairman!" Marion shouted. "Or I'll kill you."

" _Wow, Puppet_ ," Max remarked though his voice was hoarse. " _You caught on pretty quick_."

"Don't ever call me by that name anymore!" cried Marion. "I'm Marion Ester, the greatest ballet performer in America!"

" _Is that genuine, or just what the papers say?_ " Max wondered.

Marion tightened her grip around Max's throat and said, "Doesn't matter. You'll be dead soon, and I'll be gone from this town."

" _But where will you put my body? If I disappear, the people I work for will call the police and come looking for me_."

"Fazbear Entertainment will intercept those calls long before they reach police headquarters," responded Marion. "After all, they wouldn't any investigations to reveal anything 'unsightly'. It's been their policy for years. To quote the greeting given to every employee who worked at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 'Upon discovering that damage or death has occurred, a missing person report will be filed within 90 days, or as soon property and premises have been thoroughly cleaned and bleached, and the carpets have been replaced.'"

" _Okay, you_ _'_ _ve made your point,_ " Max said and reached for the gun inside his coat-pocket. " _But that still doesn_ _'_ _t explain what you_ _'_ _re going to do with me_."

"As soon as I finish choking you, I'll put your body in my costume to make it looked like I died and then leave to join up with Foxy."

" _Foxy? Is that your leader?_ "

"He is, and has great plans in store for all of us."

" _Like what?_ "

"He's going to let us live the way we want instead of having our lives be determined by someone else. You don't know what we have to go through each day at that awful restaurant, and yet you hunt us down like wild animals."

" _That may be true, but a job_ _'_ _s a job,_ " Max said and fired the gun over his head.

The bullet hit the dressing stand and sent an electrical pulse that shut down all the lights around the mirror. Marion temporarily let go of Max and covered her ears allowing Max to get up and point his gun at her. But she used her foot to kick him and the impact was so hard that Max stumbled backwards while Marion got up and ran out of the dressing room.

To be continued…


	6. Chapter 6: No Strings Attached

Chapter 6: No Strings Attached

Max pursued Marion into the street, but there were so many people going in and out of the theatre that spotting her became difficult. He eventually recognized the black-and-white striped fingerless gloves she wore as she attempted to descend the stairs to the subway. As Max approached her swiftly with his gun in hand, Marion immediately fled down the street. People got out of the way as Max fired the electrical bullets in Marion's direction. The first shot missed, but Max fired again right afterwards and it went straight through Marion's chest. She started to stumble, but kept running despite her bleeding shoulder.

So Max fired a third shot and it hit Marion in the spine. She keeled over and fell into a glass display of lingerie outfits on still manikins while a fake snow poured in from the ceiling. By the time Max came up to her, she was bleeding badly and not moving. People were starting to crowd around Marion and Max made a motion to clear them, but he was frozen stiff with the gun still in his hand.

"I'll deal with this," said a voice right next to Max's ear followed by a tight squeeze on the shoulder.

"Franz," Max said absently as the young man approached the crowd flashing another fake police-badge.

"Break it up!" Franz shouted, getting everyone's attention. "This is a police investigation, and there's nothing to see here."

While people started question Franz, Max turned around and walked slowly away. He didn't get very far when he spotted Chichi near the stairs to the subway. He walked towards her, though he didn't know why, and saw that she was wearing a large fur coat and her blue eyes seemed fixed on him instead of looking far away.

"Was my hunch correct?" Chichi asked bluntly.

"It was," Max answered breathlessly as he leaned against the side of the stairs.

"What's wrong?" Chichi moved closer to Max. "Did The Puppet hurt you?"

"Not really," Max said and tried to cover his neck but Chichi pulled his hands away.

"You've been strangled," Chichi said examining the marks on Max's neck. "Are there any other wounds?"

"No," Max replied, though he felt a sudden burning pain coming from his chest again.

Chichi noticed Max's pained look and started to unbutton his overcoat. Max tried to stop her, but her hands were stronger and soon his bandaged mid-drift was exposed. There was a new pool of blood forming where the bullet had passed by his heart.

"Where did you get this?" Chichi looked at Max sternly. "Did Marion shoot you with your own gun?"

"No, this was an earlier wound," Max said though he was having a hard time breathing. "From when I 'dismantled' Toy Bonnie."

Then Max's breath stopped and his eyesight darkened.

###

When Max woke up, he found himself in a bed made of white bedsheets and soft covers. The rest of the room was bare, though the curtains were purple with white stars on them. There was a television set in front of him, a second identical bed to his left, a bathroom door perpendicular from the main door, and to his left there was a soft armchair decorated in the same pattern as the curtains where Chichi was watching with the lamp next to the chair partially illuminating her face. She didn't seem tired, and looked somewhat annoyed when she noticed his gaze.

"How long have I been out?" Max asked weakly.

"About three hours," Chichi replied. "I brought you to this hotel after you passed out in my arms, and then used some first-aid equipment that was in the bathroom to patch your wound."

"Guess it wasn't bad enough to admit me to a hospital," Max murmured.

"No, but I was tempted to," Chichi admitted. "Do you normally injure yourself while 'dismantling' Animatronics?"

"Sometimes," replied Max as his eyelids dropped.

"I also gave you pain killers, though you probably don't remember me giving them to you," Chichi said.

"What are you doing here?" Max said though he struggled to stay away. "Did Fred send you to keep an eye on me?"

"No, I'm not here for Fred," Chichi said as she got up from the chair and walked toward Max. "He doesn't know I'm here."

"Then why?"

Chichi leaned down and kissed Max full on the mouth. "I came for you, Max Schmidt."

###

When Max woke up again, it was still dark outside. He felt something warm and noticed Chichi sleeping next to him. She was completely naked, and her hair was undone. Max's cheeks flushed red and then he turned away from her.

"You don't like what you see?" Chichi asked as her eyelids fluttered open.

Startled, Max said, "Were you awake this whole time?"

"Partially," Chichi answered. "We Animatronics are active during the day and night."

Max didn't say anything, and looked puzzled. "So, you knew you were—

"An Animatronic?" Chichi turned Max over so that he was only a few inches from her face. "Of course I did. Just because I'm programmed with false memories doesn't mean I don't know what I really am. Otherwise, the Animatronics that work at Freddy's Café will think they are completely human and it would only be a matter of time before they realize they're not. Company policy states that false memories must be given for the Animatronic to behave and think like a human, but the Animatronic must also remember that it is a machine and its purpose is to serve humans."

"So you worked at Freddy's Café before working for…your uncle?" Max asked hesitantly.

Chichi nodded in turn. "Yes, but then when the others escaped I was transferred to Fred who made me his personal secretary and niece in order to keep me from running away."

"Then you must know Foxy, the so-called leader of these renegade Animatronics."

At the mention of 'Foxy,' Chichi seemed to shrink her head down. "I did, but not really well."

"What do you mean?"

To be continued…


	7. Chapter 7: The Purple Guy

Chapter 7: The Purple Guy

"After we were created, me and the Toys were assigned to different members of the Original Model group to train under," Chichi said, propping her head against her elbow while continuing to gaze at Max. "I was sent to train under Chica, while Toy Bonnie trained with Bonnie, and Toy Freddy studied under Freddy Fazbear."

"What about The Puppet?" Max asked. "Who was its teacher?"

"Golden Freddy," Chichi answered. "He was based on an earlier version of Freddy Fazbear, and the other Toy Animatronic whom he mentored was Balloon Boy."

"Then that means Toy Foxy studied under Foxy."

"Yes, though we called her 'Mangle'. Pieces of her body kept falling off, so she had to be repaired constantly. Fred thinks it was a design flaw, but he's not entirely sure."

"So what kinds of things did Foxy and Bonnie say that got most of the Toys stirred up enough to escape from the restaurant?"

"The same story that got previous Original Models to escape: the 'Purple Guy.'"

"'Purple Guy'? Fred called him the 'Purple Man.'"

"Well, you heard wrong. The Purple Guy is the reason why we Animatronics have been malfunctioning, even before our current human forms."

"When you looked more like animals?"

Again, Chichi nodded. "From what I've been told, he was a very bad man who killed little boys and girls he took to a secret place within each Freddy Fazbear's Pizza he worked at."

"He was an employee? How many children did he murder?"

"I'd say about five or six at each of the four Freddy Fazbear's locations with only one at Fredbear's Diner and none at Freddy's Fright."

"That's twenty-four kids! Did he get caught?"

"Never, and that's why the spirits of those murdered children haunted the Animatronics and caused all the unfortunate 'accidents' to occur."

"Even the Bite of '87?"

"Even that dreadful incident which shut down the Toy Animatronics of that location for good. Does that event mean anything to you?"

"My colleague, Jared, his father used to work for Freddy Fazbear's back in the day. But then, some accident occurred at work and his frontal lobe was bitten off by something. He was hospitalized afterward, which happened when Jared was very young."

"That must've been extremely traumatizing, and yet it's interesting that Jared has now suffered the same fate at his father by a variant of the same Animatronic."

At that, Max glared at Chichi. "Then you know which one did it?"

"Not exactly, but I can take a guess," Chichi said averting Max's glare. "The Mangle from Freddy Fazbear's had an extremely wide jaw and she could walk on ceilings. So she could bite the frontal lobe off a full-grown man and he wouldn't see it coming. Then if we assume that the current Mangle is based on the one from Freddy Fazbear's, then she might have the same capabilities though I've never seen them myself."

"So is the Purple Guy still alive?"

"In a way," Chichi said nonchalantly. "Physically, he killed himself by putting on a faulty spring lock suit when he got corned by the spirits of five dead children. Then thirty years later at Freddy's Fright, his spirit haunted the spring lock suit which was nicknamed 'Springtrap' by the employee who worked there. After Springtrap killed the employee, there was a fire and the entire attraction burned to the ground. But Springtrap escaped, and he's somewhere out there with the spirit of the Purple Guy still inside him."

"Let me see if I've got this straight," Max said sitting up in bed looking down at Chichi. "You're saying that all the Animatronics my comrades and I have been 'dismantling' all these years, including the current ones that have escaped, are haunted by the spirits of children?"

Chichi nodded in approval.

"And the reason you guys try escape the restaurant is because you want to find the spirit of the man who murdered these children while they were alive?"

"Exactly," Chichi said and smiled.

"This is ridiculous," Max said and got out of bed. "Dealing with malfunctioning robots is one thing, but haunted ones? Give me a break!"

"But it's true," Chichi insisted as she sat up covering her naked breasts with the blanket. "You have to believe me."

"Is this a lie Fred told you or some story Foxy and Bonnie made up because they were experiencing severe glitches?"

"Neither of those," Chichi said shaking her head. "I was initially skeptical when Foxy and Bonnie first told us, but then after a while I felt something stir inside me. It felt like…another presence that was small and innocent, but angry and vengeful. Sometimes at night, my eyes change and my nose vanishes completely. Then when that happens, I become…a different person altogether."

"Could be a glitch," Max suggested and walked over to the other bed where his clothes were neatly folded. "Might want to see an Engineer about that."

"Where are you going?" Chichi asked.

"To find Foxy and the other Animatronics," Max answered putting on his trousers. "If I don't catch them now, they'll be out of my reach."

"Why must you catch them? Can't they be allowed to find the Purple Guy in peace?"

"That's not what The Puppet told me about why it and the other Animatronics escaped. It claimed they wanted to live normal lives."

"Consciously, they do, but unconsciously they want to find the Purple Guy."

"Robots don't have unconsciouses. They're just goddamn machines!"

At that moment, Chichi's eyes widened and then she passed out on the bed. Max looked behind briefly, but he shrugged and continued to put on his clothes. A rustling sound got Max's attention then he felt something heavy push him down onto the second bed. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Chichi standing behind him but the whites of her eyes had gone black while her irises were white. Another odd thing Max noticed was her nose was completely gone.

Before Max could say anything, Chichi made a sound like an electronically distorted child's scream and launched herself at him. Max got out of the way and got himself behind her. He noticed his gun by the bedside table and grabbed it.

"Freeze!" Max shouted, pointing the gun at the back of Chichi's head. "Or I'll shoot!"

"Would you really do that, Max?" Chichi said as her head turned 180 degrees around to face him. "Don't you love me?"

Max hesitated and kept his grip steady.

"Go on, then," Chichi said tauntingly. "Shoot me!"

"No, I don't want to," Max said as his arms started shaking.

"What's the matter? Too chicken?" Chichi then made a series of obnoxious clucking noises.

Angered, Max steadied himself and pulled the trigger.

The bullet shot past Chichi's head and hit the closet on the other side of the second bed. This in turn caused Chichi to faint again, and this time Max caught her. As he let the gun drop to the floor, Chichi started to stir. Her eyes had gone back to normal and her nose somehow reappeared without Max noticing.

"Max," Chichi said as tears welled up in her eyes. "Did I hurt you?"

"Not one bit," Max replied and embraced Chichi as she cried.

To be continued…


	8. Chapter 8: A Lost Fox

**Okay, so for the next few chapters I** **'** **m going to switch from Max and Chichi to Foxy and the other escaped Animatronics to get their side of the story. Thanks for reading, favoriting, and following my story so far!**

Chapter 8: A Lost Fox

While Jared Fitzgerald was discovered by unfortunate demolishers at the abandoned Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, a man was driving home from work several blocks away. His name was Peter Giles and his main occupation was Robotic Engineering. Specifically, he worked at the factories that produced the Animatronics featured in every Freddy's Café. His main task was fixing the ones that came in broken and shipping them back to their original location. It wasn't an easy job, especially since he couldn't talk freely about his work to anyone outside the factory.

As a result, Peter didn't have friends and lived inside a big apartment complex with only a few tenants inside. Everyone mostly kept to themselves, so the apartment was deathly quiet most of the time. But when loud noises did occur, all the tenants knew about it and the landlord would be down on whoever was making the disturbance in a heartbeat. So Peter drove up quietly into the parking lot behind the apartment complex in an ordinary car that could hover like the new models, but it got him around. Then as he approached the back-door cautiously, something caught his eye.

Beside the back-door, there was a dark alley that ran between the apartment complex and an identical one next to it. Normally it was empty as the windowsill where the landlord lived lay just above the alleyway, and he was always watching for any hoodlums or homeless people who thought the alley was a good place to hide or rest. This night, however, the alley was occupied by a single person. Peter couldn't see this person real well, being in the shadow of the two buildings and hiding behind the two trashcans next to the back-door.

"Hey," Peter whispered.

There was no response.

Concerned, Peter stepped closer to the trashcans. He heard the scuffling of feet and the rustle of soft fabric.

"It's okay," Peter said lowering his hands. "I'm not going to hurt you."

He could see a dark lump above the trashcans but it made no sound.

"Are you homeless?" Peter asked. When no reply came he said, "Because if you are, you might want to pick somewhere else. The landlord of this apartment hates people lurking inside that alleyway."

"Why?" a soft voice said coming from the trashcans.

"Well, because it makes him feel insecure," Peter said nervously.

"Insecure?" The voice replied.

"Um, afraid; nervous, you know?"

The voice didn't reply back.

"How old are you?" Peter wondered.

"I don't know," said the voice.

"What do you mean? You got to know your own age."

"I'm not sure. I have memories, but I learned they were false. So I ran away."

"From home? Where do you live?"

"I can't tell you." The dark lump shrank back down behind the trashcans. "You won't tell anyone where I am, will you?"

"Why?"

"Because if they know, they'll take me back and make me forget."

Peter shifted uncomfortably. "Are you in some kind of trouble, Miss?"

"I'd rather not talk about it," the voice said. "I was supposed to meet someone here, but he hasn't shown up yet."

"Who is it?"

"Someone I care deeply about."

Overhead, the dark sky rumbled.

"A storm's about to start," Peter said unlocking the back-door quickly. "You might want to come inside."

"What's a storm?"

"It's, uh, when rain falls from the clouds."

"Rain?"

"You know, drops of water."

"Water!" the voice exclaimed as a figure appeared behind the trashcans. "It can fall from the sky?"

"Yeah, didn't you know that?" Peter said as he opened the door.

"No," replied the voice as the figure stepped out of the shadows. "All my life I've been sheltered, not knowing anything that happens in the outside world."

In the light of the street-lamp, Peters saw that the voice belonged to a girl as he suspected. She looked to be in her mid-teens, with pale skin and one yellow eye peeking out behind a wave of medium white hair. There were red stains around the curves of her mouth, but Peter paid no attention to them. Instead, he focused on the pointy white ears that were poking out from the sides of her head. Her clothes included a gray sweatshirt and baggy sweatpants but there were no shoes on her tiny feet.

When the girl noticed Peter looking at the ears, she blushed and covered them with one hand. "Its part of my costume, for work."

"Oh, I see," Peter said and felt the first few drops of rain. "Let's get inside."

Peter opened the back-door wide to let the girl through and then he closed it softly behind him.

"Where do you work?" Peter asked as they walked up the stairs next to the hallway.

The white-haired girl said nothing and looked away.

"Must've been a pretty bad job, then," Peter said and looked back at the girl. "You don't have to hide the ears from me. They look cute on you."

"Cute?" The girl's cheeks flushed red as she let her hand fall to her side. "No one's ever said that to me before, except…"

"The person you care about?"

The girl nodded.

"What's your name?" Peter said once they reached the first landing. "I'm Peter Giles."

"V-Vixen," replied the girl nervously.

"Vixen? That's a nice name."

For a while, neither Peter or Vixen spoke as they walked up the second flight of stairs reaching another landing. They walked down the empty hallway quietly until they reached two doors that were right next to one another. While Vixen stood looking around the hallway, Peter unlocked the door to the right and opened it.

"Come on in," Peter said, opening the door. "You can stay here until that special someone of yours shows up."

Vixen made no indication to move.

"I won't bite," Peter said assuredly. "If you need to call that person, I have a phone."

"He doesn't have a phone," Vixen muttered.

"Then how will he know where to find you?"

"We can sense each other." Vixen noticed Peter's confused stare and shook her head. "It's difficult to explain."

"Well you can stay out there if you want, but it's much safer in my apartment," Peter said as he started to close the door. "Someone will probably notice you tomorrow morning and tell the landlord about it."

At that moment, Vixen's pointy ears seemed to move and she followed Peter into the apartment.

To be continued…


	9. Chapter 9: Hide and Seek

Chapter 9: Hide and Seek

Later that night, Peter felt someone shaking him roughly awake. He opened one eye and saw Vixen staring at him with a nervous look on her face. She had taken off the baggy sweatshirt and pants and was now wearing a short pink frilly dress with no straps and long white fingerless gloves on her arms while her feet were covered in pink lacy heels.

"What is it?" Peter mumbled.

"You have to get up," Vixen said and then a sharp knock came from the door. "Now."

"Who's there?" Peter said as he slowly got out of bed.

"The one I care about," Vixen said helping Peter up. "He's here."

"Then I should get dressed." Peter stumbled to a pile of clothes next to his futon bed but Vixen pushed him away.

"No, you need to hide in the closet," Vixen said opening the shuttered closet-door which was located across from the kitchen on the other side of the futon bed.

"Why?" Peter asked as he was shoved into the closet by Vixen's strong hands.

"Just be quiet and don't move," Vixen replied and closed the closet-door.

Through the shutters, Peter watched as Vixen moved toward the front door and opened just as a second sharp knock began. Three people stood in the hallway outside Peter's apartment. The one in front was a tall figure wearing a black hooded raincoat and a white mask over its face. Next to the tall figure stood a small boy with a round figure, cold blue eyes, and red circles on his cheeks.

"Marion, BB," Vixen said opening the door wider. "You came. Where's Fawkes?"

"Right here."

The tall figure and the small boy stepped aside to reveal a short man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt. He stepped into the apartment and removed his hood. Like Vixen, this man had pointed ears as well, but they were red instead of white. His shaggy hair was the same color as his ears, though it barely covered the black eyepatch that was on the right side of his face. With one eye covered, his other eye shone bright-green in the dark.

"Fawkes!" Vixen immediately stepped forward and hugged the short man tightly. "I thought I would never see you again."

"So did I," said the short man named Fawkes who slowly wrapped his own hands around Vixen.

But when Peter looked closely, he noticed one of Fawkes' hands was a curved metal hook that looked incredibly sharp.

"Where's Bonetti?" Vixen asked when she looked over Fawkes' shoulder.

"He'll be here later," Fawkes replied as Vixen looked at him. "Someone was following us."

"Who?"

"I'm not sure, but Bonetti's taking care of him now."

"I see."

"Guys," said the small boy named BB who was looking around the room frantically. "My facial scanners are picking up a human presence."

"Where?" asked Fawkes, who gritted his teeth which included two pairs of sharp canines on the top and bottom rows.

BB stepped into the apartment and looked directly at the closet-door. "There."

Peter froze stiff as Fawkes quickly made his way across the one-room apartment and slammed open the closet-door.

"Who are you?" Fawkes growled as he grabbed Peter by the collar of his pajama shirt and pulled him out of the closet.

"I-I'm P-P-Peter G-Giles," Peter said nervously.

"Is this your apartment?" asked Fawkes.

Peter nodded.

"Then how did Vixen get in here without him noticing?" BB asked.

"He let me in," Vixen said, causing everyone else in the room to look at her.

"Does he know what you are?" Fawkes said as his head suddenly turned one-hundred and eighty degrees to look at Vixen.

"No," Vixen answered.

"Then why didn't you kill him?" Fawkes wondered. "That certainly wasn't a problem for you earlier today."

"That was different!" Vixen snapped.

"Guys, can you keep it down?" Peter said getting Vixen and everyone else's attention. "Someone might hear you and tell the landlord about it."

"Not if I kill you first," Fawkes said and pressed his hooked hand against Peter's throat.

"Wait a minute," BB suddenly said. "Peter Giles…P.G….could this human be the Purple Guy?"

"Let me check," said the masked figured named Marion who stepped over to where Fawkes stood and stared at Peter. After several minutes, Marion shook her head. "It's not him."

"Then who is he?" BB asked.

Marion looked back at BB and said, "This human is an Engineer who works at the factory that makes and repairs our kind."

Peter's eyes widened. "Then you're…Animatronics."

Everyone in the room went silent.

"You catch on pretty quick, for a human," Fawkes said, pressing the sharp end of the hook harder into Peter's neck but not drawing blood. "I could kill you right now, but then again you might prove useful to us."

"How?" Peter said nervously.

Fawkes glared at Peter and said, "If you promise to keep our presence secret and do as I say from now on, I'll let you live."

"I-I promise," Peter replied.

"Do you swear it?" Fawkes said dubious.

"I swear it, on my life."

"Fine." Fawkes made a long thin cut on Peter's throat with his hook before withdrawing it. "I'm letting you off with a warning. If you betray me or anyone else in this room, your whole throat's going off. Understand?"

Again, Peter nodded and quickly ran into the bathroom to change his soaked pajama pants.

###

The next night after work, Peter came home carrying several bags of groceries. He was about to ascend the stairs to his apartment when a big man with a bulging gut suddenly approached him from down the hallway adjacent to the stairs.

"Mr. Giles," said the big man in a friendly tone. "How've you been?"

"Uh, good," Peter said nervously.

"All right, then let me get straight to the point," the big man said and moved closer to Peter. "A got a complaint this morning from the old lady who lives one floor below you claiming that she heard loud noises coming from your apartment last night. Can you verify this?"

"Oh, that, um," Peter thought of something and said, "I was, uh, watching a movie on TV. It was pretty loud and I guess I forgot to turn down the volume."

"What movie were you watching?" the big man asked.

"Um, _Chopping Mall_ ," replied Peter.

The big man gave Peter a confused look. "What's that?"

"It's about, um, killer robots going after teenagers, in a mall, and killing them."

"Sounds disgusting," the big man said and noticed the grocery bags Peter was carrying. "That's a lot of groceries. Having a party?"

"Uh, yeah, with my coworkers," Peter said. "Is that okay?"

"I don't care, just don't make a lot of noise," the big man said and walked away.

"Who was that?"

Peter jumped and saw Marion standing next to him. She had just come down the stairs and while wearing the same mask her clothes had changed. Instead of the black and white raincoat, she wore a black-and-white striped blouse with a visible black bra, fingerless gloves with the same pattern, black shorts, and black-and-white stripped stockings with black strap-on slippers. Peter also noticed that Marion's skin was deathly pale and her long hair was black and silky.

"That was the landlord," Peter answered and then asked, "Where are you going?"

"To the Cat's Paw Theatre," Marion answered as she walked past Peter. "I'm performing there tonight in the ballet _Petrushka_."

"Who are you in the ballet?" Peter asked as Marion reached the bottom of the stairs.

"The title character, of course," Marion said and waved as she went out the backdoor. "Wish me luck, human."

"It's Peter!"

But Marion was already gone.

To be continued…


	10. Chapter 10: Lost Souls

Chapter 10: Lost Souls

Once Peter reached his apartment, he half-hoped that Fawkes and his friends were gone but was disappointed when he opened the door. Inside, Fawkes and Vixen were making out on his futon bed while the TV was turned on. As soon as Peter closed the door, the two stopped kissing and looked at him.

"Do you mind?" Fawkes said showing his canines once more.

"No, Fawkes, sir," Peter said shuttering as Fawkes glared him.

"Where have you been?" Fawkes asked as Peter crossed over into the kitchen and started putting away the groceries.

"Worked at the factory, stopped by the grocery store, then drove here," Peter answered briefly.

"Did you talk to anyone?"

"No."

"Did you call anyone?"

"No."

"Were you followed by anyone?"

"I don't think so."

"Are you sure?"

"Calm down, Foxy," Vixen said impatiently. "The poor man just got home."

"Foxy?" Peter looked at Fawkes again and his eyes widened. "You're one of the Original Models. I thought you looked familiar."

Fawkes sighed heavily. "I would prefer if you didn't call me that, now that I'm no longer an 'employee' at Freddy's Café."

"So you ran away?" Peter asked.

"Of course we did! Why do you think we're here?"

"But what about the others? I don't think I've ever seen them before at the factory."

"That's because we're brand-new," Vixen said using a hand to cover her sizable breasts. "Our creator called us the Toy Models after the Toy Animatronics from Freddy Fazbear's Pizza."

"Mangle!" Fawkes snapped. "The human mustn't know anything about us!"

"He already knows we're Animatronics, so giving him our real names isn't a big deal anymore," Vixen said calmly.

"But he might accidentally tell someone," Fawkes said nervously.

"He hasn't told anyone about us so far," Vixen said and kissed Fawkes. "I think we can trust him with our real names."

"If you say so," Fawkes said and turned his attention back to Peter. "Vixen's real name is Toy Foxy, but she's sometimes referred to as Mangle because she keeps falling apart."

"Do you know why?" Peter asked.

"No one knows," Vixen said as an eyeball fell out from underneath her bang.

Peter watched as Vixen parted her hair, revealing a gaping black hole where her eyes should've been, and place the fallen eyeball back into its socket. "Maybe I could fix that."

"Don't bother," Vixen said wearily. "The creator's top Robotic Engineers have tried and failed."

"Who's 'the creator'? You mean the owner of Fazbear Entertainment?"

"Yes, Fred Bernstein the Third," Fawkes said irritably. "I'd love to tear his throat out if I ever meet him."

"Why?" Peter wondered.

The ceiling vent suddenly rattled and swung open as BB fell out of it covered in dust and filth.

"BB!" Vixen said and quickly put the top of her dress back on. "Why did you come in through the vent?"

"Old habit, I guess," BB said as he shook the dust off of him. "I was walking past the Junkyard after getting some fake Passports for us when I noticed a few robot parts lying around and suddenly realized they belonged to Bonetti."

Vixen gasped. "So Toy Bonnie is—

"Dead," Fawkes finished. "That means Fazbear has hired a Repairman to go after us."

"Then we got to get out of here," BB said and looked around. "Where's Puppet?"

"To the Cat's Paw Theatre," Peter said causing the Animatronics to look at him. "I assume you're talking about Marion, right?"

"Did she say why?" Fawkes asked.

"For a ballet performance," Peter answered, scratching his neck where the cut was. "I think it was called _Petrushka_."

"We need to get down there and warn her," Vixen said and got off the futon.

"No, it would be too risky," Fawkes said grabbing Vixen's arm. "Only one of us should go."

"I'll do it," BB said. "I'm pretty small so I can blend into crowds easily."

"Very well," Fawkes said. "But stick around to keep an eye on Marion, in case the Repairman does show up."

"Should I attack him if he tries to kill her?" BB asked.

"Yes," Fawkes nodded. "But make sure he doesn't notice you."

"Will do," BB said and made his way to the front door.

"Balloon Boy," Vixen said causing BB to look back. "Good luck, kid."

"I'll be back before you know it, Mangle," BB said as he winked.

###

As the evening dragged on and neither BB nor Marion had returned, everyone started to get nervous. Vixen's eye kept falling out, Fawkes tortured himself by dipping his hand in a pot of boiling water, and Peter was flipping through several channels on the TV. He stopped on the news channel and felt his whole body go numb. On the screen it showed a broken store window covered in blood with police officers standing nearby.

" _A few hours ago, several witnesses reported a shootout occurring on Main Street near the Cat_ _'_ _s Paw Theatre_ ," the anchorwoman said standing near the scene. " _A young woman was heading for the subway when someone suddenly started firing a gun at her. She ran down the street, but only got a few feet before she fell through a glass display and collapsed onto the sidewalk. After this happened, a young man who claimed he was a police detective took away the body before it could be examined and was never seen again. The police showed up a few minutes later, and said they had sent no detective as they had only recently heard about the shootout. They identified the victim as Marion Ester, an actress who worked at the Cat_ _'_ _s Paw Theatre, but have found no evidence yet to confirm her identity._ "

"The Puppet's gone," Vixen said quietly as tears welled up in her eyes.

"Then either Balloon Boy failed, or he's dead too," Fawkes said, nursing his hand which smelled like burnt plastic.

"What are we going to do?" Vixen asked, crying softly. "We can't stay here."

"No, but if we make a move he might go after us," Fawkes said as he sat down next to Vixen. "We'll stay here until this investigation is over."

"But you said that after I hurt Jared," Vixen said leaning against Fawkes. "He killed Toy Freddy and Bonnie, and now someone else has killed Toy Bonnie, Puppet, and possibly Balloon Boy. Now we're the only ones left."

"The only ones left who escaped, anyway," Fawkes corrected. "Freddy and Chica are still alive, and so is Toy Chica."

"I was sad when they took her away," Vixen muttered. "She was like a sister to me."

"Let's just hope they didn't take away her memories," Fawkes said and then he glared at Peter. "You work at the Animatronic factory, right?"

"Yeah?" Peter said, wondering where Fawkes was going with this.

"Do you repair Animatronics that come in or make them?" Fawkes asked.

"I repair them," Peter answered.

"Who calls you to let you know there's an Animatronic that needs repairing?"

"Usually, it's the manager."

"Does Fred Bernstein himself ever call?"

"No, not unless it's a major emergency and he's got no one else available."

Fawkes paused and then he made a sly grin which made Peter shutter. "I've got a little job for you to do. Screw it up once, and your head's mine. Got it?"

"R-Right," Peter muttered, and touched the spot where the cut was. "What is this job you want me to do?"

To be continued…


	11. Chapter 11: Expectations

Chapter 11: Expectations

 _I can_ _'_ _t believe I_ _'_ _m actually doing this_ , Peter thought to himself as he sat on the electric train that ran from the city to the countryside. Beside him were Fawkes and Vixen who leaned against one another and kept their faces hidden underneath the hoods of their sweatshirts.

Earlier, Fawkes told Peter to make a call to his manager at work with an emergency regarding a defective Animatronic that went rampant and killed two workers before being shut down by Peter himself. This was lie, of course, but the manager bought in and immediately called Fred Bernstein the Third about it. A few minutes later, Fred himself called, telling Peter to meet him at his private cottage outside town. So after obtaining the address, Peter, Fawkes and Vixen left the apartment and made their way to the train station.

"Um, Fawkes?" Peter asked without turning his head.

"What, human?" Fawkes replied under his breath.

"What're you planning to do? At Fred's house, I mean."

Fawkes scuffed. "You'll see."

After that, Peter didn't ask anything more and was quiet the rest of the way.

###

At the train-station outside of town, a sleek black limo was parked nearby with a chauffeur standing by the driver's side. The stars were already out and a cool night breeze rustled through the shadowy pine trees.

"Are you Peter Giles?" the chauffeur asked, lifting his cap up slightly to get a better look.

Peter nodded, glancing over his shoulder as Fawkes and Vixen quickly stepped off the train.

"Then please step into the car," the chauffeur replied, opening the back door to the limo. "I was sent by Mister Bernstein to pick you up."

"Oh, that's very, um, kind of him," Peter said twiddling his thumbs.

"Is something wrong?" the chauffeur asked.

"No, nothing," Peter replied as he ducked his head and got into the back of the limo.

As soon as the car-door was shut, Fawkes attacked the chauffeur from behind. Peter then watched in horror as the chauffeur's throat was slit by Fawkes' hooked hand with blood splattering all over the car-door window. Fawkes then dragged the chauffeur's body away while Vixen proceeded to lick the blood off the window with her tongue as the iris of her visible eye had changed from yellow to white while the substance around it was black.

 _How is it possible that these things are robots when they_ _'_ _re completely insane?_ Peter wondered, trying to fight the urge to throw up.

When Vixen was done, she opened the car-door and sat next to Peter licking her blood-stained fingers and mouth. This proved too much for Peter, and so he threw up into the trash-bin that was a part of the limo's interior mini-bar. Meanwhile, Fawkes got into the driver's seat wearing the chauffeur's uniform and cap where he turned on the ignition and drove out of the parking-lot.

"Where to, human?" When Peter didn't answer, Fawkes lowered the window to the driver's seat and looked over his shoulder. "I need directions, here."

"He's sick, Foxy," Vixen said watching Peter with a pitied look.

Fawkes groaned and turned his attention back to the dirt road.

When Peter finished throwing up, he gave Vixen the piece of paper that had Fred's address written on it which Vixen gave to Fawkes in turn. Then for most of the drive up, Peter was in a daze. Vixen tried to stir him, but Peter didn't respond. Upon reaching the house, though, Peter seemed to snap out of his trance-like state when Fawkes roughly shook him.

"Hey, human," Fawkes said sharply. "Get out! We're here."

"We are?" Peter said absent-mindedly as he got up.

He was just admiring the enormous size of the cottage when Fawkes kicked him from behind, forcing him to walk towards the door. Peter then remembered everything that happened before, and suddenly felt sick again. But he ignored the feeling and rang the doorbell. To his surprise, the door opened automatically and the inside was completely dark except for a well-lit fireplace. There, a small man sat in a comfortable-looking armchair wearing a golden night-robe with a glass of Chardonnay.

"Welcome to my humble abode, Peter Giles," the small man said. "I'm Fred Bernstein the Third, now what seems to be the trouble."

Before Peter got the chance to speak, Fawkes pushed him aside and stepped into the home while Vixen followed.

"Foxy, Mangle," Fred said as he took a sip of the Chardonnay. "I was wondering when you two might show up."

"So you were expecting us?" Fawkes said strolling up to Fred with his hands in the chauffeur uniform pockets.

"In a way," replied Fred, stirring the Chardonnay. "I knew the engineer's story about a defective Animatronic that had killed some of his coworkers was a lie, so I figured you were somehow behind his actions."

"Well, congratulations, you were correct," Fawkes said grinning. "But what's your real game? I'm not buying that you let us casually stroll up here just to prove a theory."

"Indeed, Foxy," Fred answered. "There is another reason I allowed you to come here."

"What is it?" Fawkes asked.

Fred took another sip of the Chardonnay and said, "What if I told you that I know the exact location of this 'Purple Guy' that you Animatronics have been seeking?"

At that, Vixen's ears perked up along with Foxy's. "You have?"

"Before my father died and left me to inherit the company, he told me a story about how his father, who used to own the Freddy Fazbear's Pizza chain of restaurants, had to deal with a series of child murders that kept happening at each location. He had long suspected that the murderer was an employee who worked at the restaurant, but could find no evidence to prove his theory. Then when you Animatronics started defecting and running away, my father began a secret investigation into the mysterious affairs that occurred at Freddy Fazbear's because he figured they were the key to explaining why our company's brand of Animatronics have been malfunctioning despite all the advancements we've made upon the current models.

"Unfortunately, some Repairmen in the past were conducting their own investigations as well. So my father had to 'silence' them and then he accumulated their research into his own. Eventually, he managed to gather all the pieces together but died before he could complete the picture. Thus, I took it upon myself to learn what he learned and have now finished what my father began. Isn't that what brought you here, Foxy? Your desire to know where the Purple Guy is so the murdered children's spirits can rest in peace?"

"Not exactly," Fawkes said casually. "I want to know how to expand my life."

In response, Fred dropped the glass of Chardonnay onto the floor. "What?"

To be continued…


	12. Chapter 12: Expiration Date

Chapter 12: Expiration Date

"You heard me." Fawkes stepped closer till he was standing right in front of Fred looking down at him as the pupil of his eye seemed to glow in the dark. "Is there a way for Animatronics to live longer than the normal six-year lifespan?"

"I'm afraid what you're asking for is impossible," Fred said shaking his head. "You may look, feel, and act like a human, but you're still a machine and machines aren't built to last by nature."

"So are humans," Fawkes replied, leaning down till he was only a few inches from Fred's face. "They die all the time, but they get to experience so many things in life with the people they love and us Animatronics get none of that."

"Because your job is to serve humans, not be a human."

"Then why did you design us to act and look like humans?"

"The animal designs that you were originally based on from the Freddy Fazbear's restaurants were too dangerous to handle because of the sharp teeth and loose spring-locks that came with them. So the human designs were much safer by comparison, and they helped people forget about the terrible rumors that ruined the reputation of Freddy Fazbear's to begin with."

"But we're not safe," Fawkes said and held up his hooked hand which still had blood on it. "I killed your chauffeur on the way up here and Mangle bit the frontal lobe off the Repairman you originally hired to 'dismantle' us."

"True, but perhaps if you hadn't brainwashed the Toy Models with this 'Purple Guy' nonsense you wouldn't be on the run right now."

"Nonsense? I thought you said you knew where the Purple Guy is."

"I do, but there's something I need in return."

"Which is?"

"Toy Chica."

Vixen looked at Fred with a confused look.

"Where is she?" Fawkes asked, grabbing Fred by the collar of his robe.

"She was here, but has been gone for several hours," Fred answered. "My guess is that she was worried about the new Repairman I hired and went to find him."

"What's his name?" Fawkes growled.

"Max Schmidt," replied Fred. "He killed Toy Bonnie and The Puppet."

"Balloon Boy too?"

"No, he was 'dismantled' by another Repairman named Franz Smith."

"I see, so what do you want me to do?"

"Find Toy Chica, and bring her back here. If you do that, I'll give you the location of the Purple Guy and enough money for a plane ticket out of the country."

"But you can't expand my life."

"No, I cannot."

Fawkes sighed. "Very well, then."

Fred made a slight smile and patted Fawkes on the head.

"But I'm not your dog," Fawkes said, and bared his canine teeth.

Peter immediately looked away as Fawkes bit into Fred's throat and tore it out piece by piece with his teeth. Fred screamed in agony and tried calling for help, but all that came out of his mouth were choking sounds and blood. Vixen paid no attention to the screams and instead focused on the paintings located along the walls. When Fawkes was done, he turned away from the dying man licking the sides of his mouth with a happy grin on his face.

"I'm going to see if the information he has on the Purple Guy is legitimate," Fawkes said casually as he walked to a desktop computer near the fireplace. "You take care of the other human, Vixen."

Peter's eyes widened as he looked at Vixen who seemed distraught.

"Fawkes," Vixen said quietly. "He hasn't—

"Now!" Fawkes barked.

Peter attempted to run for the front-door, but Vixen got there first and blocked him.

"Forgive me, Peter," Vixen said as she tackled Peter to the floor. "But I just want to let you that…you were the nicest human I ever met."

Peter held back his tears and closed his eyes as Vixen's lower-jaw started to unhinge itself.

###

"What a sorry old man," Fawkes said driving the limo away from the house with Vixen in the passenger's seat. "He lied about the information to get us to do his dirty work for him."

"Where are we going?" Vixen asked absentmindedly.

"To the train-station," Fawkes replied. "I've got a score to settle with this 'Max Schmidt' guy."

"Can't we just leave town?"

Fawkes gave Vixen an angry look.

"I'm serious," Vixen said firmly. "We're out in the countryside. We can go anywhere."

"Yes, but what's the point of running away when the lives of your brethren have been unavenged?"

Vixen said nothing.

"Don't you want to kill the man who murdered our friends?" Fawkes asked as a grey light came over the eastern sky. "Do they mean anything to you?"

"They do, but if we go back he'll kill us for sure," Vixen said gripping her shoulders tightly. "I'd rather hide than take my chances at confronting him."

"Then get out," Fawkes said, stopping the limo abruptly. "You're free to leave."

For a moment, Vixen put her hand on the car-door but wound up holding Fawkes' arm instead. "I can't live without you, Foxy. You're the only family I have now."

"So banish any thoughts of leaving now out of your head," Fawkes said and continued driving. "We'll shoot this hunting dog down, rescue Toy Chica, and get the hell out of this town."

"All right," Vixen said as she let go of Fawkes' arm.

They didn't speak the rest of the way until they got to the train-station. Fawkes then quickly changed out of the dark gray chauffeur uniform and back into his black hood and tight maroon-colored pants. Like earlier, there weren't a lot of people and the ticket-master was sleeping at the desk. Fawkes and Vixen paid no attention to him and waited by the platform for the train to come. The eastern sky became brighter, turning dark blue, then light blue, yellow, and finally orange as the first rays of sun appeared.

"Oh, my," Vixen said under her breath. "Is this what's called a 'sunrise'?"

"Yep," Fawkes replied. "I read all about them between work hours."

"It's so beautiful." Vixen's ears twitched as they picked up the sound of a train-horn. "Did you hear that, Foxy?"

"I did," Fawkes responded and stood up. "When the train arrives, wait for the people to start boarding it and then we'll merge with them. Hopefully, no one will pester us about tickets."

Vixen nodded and heard the train-horn again. "I want you to promise me something, Foxy."

"What is it?" Fawkes turned his head to the left as the train appeared several meters down the track.

"If the Repairman kills me, crush his skull and tear his throat out."

"Sure thing, Mangle," Fawkes said and briefly kissed Vixen as the train arrived at the station.

To be continued…


	13. Chapter 13: A Job

**Now we** **'** **re switching back to Max and Chichi just so there** **'** **s no confusion over the sudden shift in perspective. Hope you guys continue to read, review, follow, and favorite my fanfic!**

Chapter 13: A Job

"You've got to be kidding me!" Max shouted the next morning after he slept with Chichi at the hotel she took him to. "Franz took out Balloon Boy while I was 'dismantling' The Puppet?"

" _That_ _'_ _s correct,_ " said the Phone Guy on Max's wristwatch phone. " _From now on, he_ _'_ _s going to be assisting you in tracking down the remaining two Animatronics._ "

"Why? I was doing fine on my own!" Max responded angrily.

" _With a bullet-wound and being nearly chocked to death? I don_ _'_ _t think so,_ " the Phone Guy said.

"Who told you I was chocked?" Max asked.

" _Chichi did,_ " answered the Phone Guy. " _She called me while you were apparently passed out. Where are you now?_ "

"The Pirate's Cove Motel," Max said reluctantly.

" _What are you doing there? Did Chichi_ _—_

"Nothing happened!" Max snapped, causing Chichi to look over her shoulder as she was changing into her clothes nearby.

" _Darn,_ " the Phone Guy said sarcastically. " _I always wondered what having sex with an Animatronic would be like._ "

"Its none of your goddamn business," Max said toning his voice down.

" _All right, whatever, but since these new Toy Models are obviously proving to be too much for you I thought having backup would be safer._ "

"Franz is too young. He's more likely to get killed than me."

" _True, but he_ _'_ _s also really good. He might even surpass you someday._ "

"Yeah, but I'm not going down without a fight. I'll get those last two Animatronics and I expect to be paid the full amount Jared would've gotten had he not gotten his frontal lobe bitten off."

" _That would be unfair to him. He_ _'_ _s still getting paid for_ _'_ _dismantling_ _'_ _Toy Freddy and Bonnie since he took care of them and you didn_ _'_ _t. The same applies to Franz taking out Balloon Boy._ "

"But I was planning to retire after this job."

Chichi turned around in surprise.

The Phone Guy fell silent all of a sudden, and then he said, " _When did you decide to do this?_ "

"After I killed Toy Bonnie," Max replied. "That whole experience made me realize trying to solve a problem that's not going away anytime soon isn't worth risking my life over."

" _So what are you saying? That we Repairmen should just let these dangerous robots run loose harming countless people in the process?_ "

"I don't think all the Animatronics are dangerous. Some of them were just trying to live normal lives like people, but ultimately they're on a quest of sorts."

" _For what, exactly?_ "

"To find the man who murdered them."

" _Murdered them? What are you talking about?_ "

"It's a long story. I'll tell you more about it once I 'dismantle' Foxy and Mangle."

" _Fine, but it had better be good._ "

After Max hung up, Chichi turned on the TV as she finished changing.

"You're a strange man, Max Schmidt," Chichi said nonchalantly. "You'll sleep with a robot out of pity, but still choose to kill two of them because you were ordered to."

"A job's a job, whether you like it or not," Max said, grabbing his gun and wallet from the bedside table. "But I'm not doing this because it's a job."

"Oh? Then why?" Chichi asked.

"Because I—

Max was then interrupted as his eyes turned to the TV where he saw the cabin where he met Fred Bernstein the Third being sealed off by yellow-tape with police-cars surrounding it. While policemen moved about the scene, the tagline read 'Fazbear CEO Murdered'.

"Chichi," Max said, getting Chichi's attention. "You might want to look at this."

At that moment, Chichi looked and the color seemed to drain from her face. "No, why would he…?"

"Who? Foxy?" Max sounded baffled as he looked from the TV to Chichi.

"It has to be his doing," Chichi said. "He's trying to find out where the Purple Guy is."

"Why would Fred know?"

"He lied to you, Max. Fred knows a great deal about the Purple Guy."

"Did he tell you?"

"No, but I have this." Chichi reached inside the breast-pocket of her yellow suit-jacket and pulled out a small black flash-drive. "It contains all the information Fred has about the Purple Guy and the Freddy Fazbear murders I told you about."

"Then Foxy must've killed Fred after not finding the flash-drive. But how does the engineer fit into the picture?"

Chichi watched the TV as the image of a man in his mid-thirties with greasy brown hair, round glasses, a blue jean jacket and matching trousers flashed on the screen.

"I don't know," Chichi responded after a long pause. "Perhaps Mangle persuaded the engineer with her charms to get her and Foxy up to the cabin."

"What about the chauffeur? How did they get past him?"

"He was killed," Chichi said pointing at the TV screen where it showed the black limo and a blood-soaked body being taken away. "Look."

"Jesus," Max said staring at the screen a long time. "I've got to stop these guys before more innocent people are killed."

"Even if you're risking your own life?" Chichi asked folding her arms.

"Yes," Max answered, picking up his gun.

"Can't we just run away together?" Chichi said blocking the door. "Why must you 'dismantle' Foxy and Mangle?"

"Running away would be cowardly," replied Max as he pushed Chichi out of the way. "I got to see this thing through to the end, even if it kills me."

"Fine, then go die for all I care!" Chichi said as she stormed to the bathroom and locked the door behind her.

Max was about to say something, but chose not to and left the hotel room. He made his way downstairs and out the front door. There was a heavy downpour outside, but Max ignored it as he made his way across the street and got into his hover-car. Inside, he used a laptop attached to the dashboard of his car to look up the engineer who got killed and soon discovered his address.

To be continued…


	14. Chapter 14: Cat and Mouse

**I was originally going to stay with Max** **'** **s perspective for the remainder of the story, but then I decided to switch back to Foxy and Mangle for this part instead. Then after the three asterisk, I** **'** **ll switch to Max. Hope you guys are enjoying this fanfic and be sure to check out my other works as well!**

Chapter 14: Cat and Mouse

"Are you sure this'll work, Foxy?" Vixen asked lying underneath the covers of the futon bed in Peter's apartment.

"We can't go anywhere else, Mangle," Fawkes said closing the blinds in the kitchen. "We'll get spotted immediately by someone if we leave the apartment during the day."

"But on the news they mentioned Peter's name," Vixen responded. "From there, it shouldn't be too difficult for the Repairman to find us."

"And that's what I'm counting on," replied Fawkes as he turned off the kitchen lights.

"What?" Vixen peeked her head out from the futon bed as her ears perked up.

"I want him to come to us," Fawkes said grinning. "That way, he'll have to play by _our_ rules instead of his."

"I'm not following you."

"If we went to him, we'd be at his mercy and probably die as a result. But staying here forces **him** to come to us where he'll be at **our** mercy and most likely die from our combined efforts."

"So why should I hide under the futon? I would much prefer being on the ceiling."

"Hm, you have a point." Fawkes scratched the bottom of his chin and said, "It'll be pretty dark in here so he won't spot you very easily."

"Yay!" Vixen cried and crawled out of the covers.

"Shh!" Fawkes snapped. " _Do you want to let the neighbors know we_ _'_ _re here._ "

" _No, sorry,_ " Vixen whispered and placed her hands against the wall. " _Ready when you are, Foxy._ "

" _Okay, start climbing._ " Fawkes turned off the light in the living-room which made the apartment completely dark except for the hints of sunlight coming in from the blinds.

While Vixen ascended the wall and lay flat against the ceiling above, Fawkes made his way quietly to the closet and closed the door softly behind him. Several hours later, the two heard footsteps outside, but none came to the apartment door. Some of the voices kept saying something about a bomb, but Fawkes knew this was just a ruse to get everyone to evacuate the building. He noticed Vixen move, but he signaled her to stay still. Once she did, the footsteps died down and the apartment was completely silent.

Fawkes' ears went up as he heard thunder outside, followed by a steady downpour of rain. Vixen shook nervously causing the ceiling to creak slightly. More time passed and there were no other sounds except the rain, the occasional _crack_ of thunder, and there were flashes of lighting outside that briefly lit the room. Then very faintly, Fawkes heard a single pair of footsteps that were coming up the stairs.

" _Here he comes,_ " Fawkes said. " _Get in position._ "

" _Foxy, I_ _'_ _m scared,_ " Vixen said nervously.

" _Don_ _'_ _t be_ ," Fawkes replied. " _Just follow what we planned and we_ _'_ _ll be fine._ "

After that, Vixen didn't say anything as the footsteps approached the hallway and moved steadily closer to the apartment.

###

Outside the apartment, Max had his gun out and was making slow steady steps to the single apartment door at the end of the hallway. His heart was pounding against his chest and his hands were becoming increasingly sweaty. He kept thinking about Chichi, but every image of her was when she was fully nude.

 _Don_ _'_ _t think about that_ , Max said shaking his head. _She_ _'_ _s not even a real person!_

After taking a deep breath, Max quietly opened the door to the apartment and looked inside. It was completely dark and there were no audible sounds to be heard. So cautiously, he stepped in and made his way along the walls. He searched in vain for a light-switch with his hand, while the other held the gun firmly. There were times when he thought he heard breathing, but then Max decided it was just his imagination. When he felt something small and rectangular shaped, Max realized he had found the light-switch.

But just as he was about to flip it, Max heard slight creaking noises and looked around. Nothing stirred, and as his eyes adjusted he noticed distinct shapes. One was a futon bed, which lay next to what he presumed to be the closet, a night-stand with an alarm-clock showing numbers in neon red, and a hint of a doorway next to him. As the electric clock changed to 12:00 AM, Max turned away and flipped the light-switch. The moment he did this, something heavy fell on top of him. Max looked up and saw a young woman with white hair and matching fox ears looking down at him as her eyes changed to the same color that Chichi's eyes did after she had passed out at the hotel and her lower jaw started to unhinge.

"You must be Mangle," Max said, gasping as the young woman's pale legs pressed tightly against the sides of his head.

"Die, meat-bag!" the young woman cried as she opened her mouth full of two pairs of canines.

Max then leaned forward, causing himself to almost hit the wall while Mangle jumped back onto the ceiling. Before Max could turn around, Mangle pressed him flat against the wall with both her hands. Then just as she was about to bite the back of his head, Max elbowed the side of her face causing her to scream and let him go. He then got underneath her and pointed his gun directly at her stomach.

Without hesitation, Max fired. Mangle screeched painfully and fell from the ceiling. She then started twitching on the ground uncontrollably as Max got to his feet. He then pointed the gun and fired another electrical bullet at her head. After a brief cry, Mangle stopped twitching and became limp. Max heard the closet door opening and turned around. He saw something move and fired his gun, but the bullet missed.

Max quickly moved into the kitchen, but saw no one inside it. Unconvinced, Max moved slowly past the kitchen sink on one side and the stove on the other. But when he got to the fridge, a mechanical hand reached out and grabbed his gun hand. Unable to fire, Max watched as the mechanical arm suddenly became a whole maroon-colored hoodie sleeve and then a whole person. It was a young man with medium red hair, a visible green eye while the other was covered by a black eyepatch, and a hook for a second hand.

"Foxy, the Pirate Fox," Max said, trying to sound calm though his hand was shaking nervously under the man's tight grip. "I've heard a lot of things about you."

"Same here, Repairman," the man said snidely. "You've killed several of my comrades, including Mangle just now. You must be good."

"You're awfully calm about this, considering I just murdered your girlfriend," Max replied, but immediately regretted it.

In turn, Foxy twisted Max's arm to the point where Max was forced to drop the gun. Then before he could back away, Max was thrust against the fridge by Foxy who twisted his gun arm behind his back and played with his fingers. Realizing what he was about to do, Max struggled violently but Foxy's grip was too strong.

"This is for Toy Bonnie," Foxy said as he snapped Max's pinkie.

Max flinched, but he didn't cry out.

Foxy then snapped Max's ring-finger. "This is for The Puppet."

Again, Max didn't scream.

"And this is for Mangle."

This time, Max cried out briefly as his index-finger snapped.

"I'll get the one who killed Balloon Boy later," Foxy replied as he stooped down and picked up the gun from the floor. "But first, I want to play a game with you."

"What game?" Max asked as he felt the gun being placed into his remaining pointer-finger and thumb which weren't broken.

"I want you to shoot me straight as I'm leaving the kitchen," Foxy answered as he stepped back. "Starting now!"

As Foxy ran out of the kitchen, Max quickly switched the gun to his other hand and fired. The bullet hit the wall next to the bathroom door, then Foxy appeared from behind the left wall next to the kitchen doorway. Max fired again, but missed as Foxy ran to the other side of the doorway. Foxy then gave Max the middle-finger with his mechanical hand before Max fired a third time, but the bullet only brushed past Foxy's ear.

"Really? Is that the best you can do?" Foxy said as the white of his good eye changed to black while the iris turned white. "You're starting to bore me."

Foxy then stepped away from the kitchen doorway, but Max could hear the sound of metal scratching against plaster.

"Once I finish circling this room, I'm going to crush your skull and tear your throat out," Foxy said menacingly as Max saw him on the other side of the main room scraping his hook against the wall. "That's what I promised Mangle if she died by your hand."

To be continued…


	15. Chapter 15: Machines and Love

**This is the second-to-last chapter of the fanfic followed by an epilogue! Hope you** **'** **re all enjoying this!**

Chapter 15: Machines and Love

Once Foxy was out of Max's line of vision, Max quickly opened the window in the kitchen with his one hand dropping the gun in the process. He climbed up the fire-escape outside in the pouring rain, and got to the third floor landing. Once he realized his gun was missing, Max silently cursed to himself and then used his good hand to open one of the windows. Finding himself in a bathroom, Max took a seat on the edge of the bathtub and nursed his broken fingers.

"That son of a b**ch," Max said under his breath. "He's crazier than I thought he'd be."

Sudden laughter erupted from the other side of the bathroom wall and then Foxy's head popped out from the area between the sink and the mirror.

"Hello, Governor," Foxy said in a fake British accent. "Wake up and smell the coffee!"

Max didn't say anything and quickly looked around for something he could use as a weapon.

"Not so powerful, eh?" Foxy taunted shaking his head to get the asphalt out of his hair. "Miss that powerful gun of yours, eh?"

"Shut up, Foxy," Max snapped as he got up. "You should've been dismantled long ago, along with your other friends."

"But that's not my fault, now is it?" Foxy said retreating his head from the hole. "Those pinstriped a**holes at Fazbear Entertainment are the real bad guys here. I just want to be human. Now, is that too much to ask for?"

"That's impossible," Max said breaking off the metal bar that held the towels up over the bathtub. "Machines can only imitate, but they can't be human."

"You sound just like Fred Bernstein," Foxy noted as he opened the door to the bathroom from the other side, his one good eye still black and white. "Before I killed him."

Then as Foxy let out a blood-curdling scream, Max charged with the metal bar and hit Foxy on the head. Taken aback, Foxy crashed into the window breaking the glass and letting the rainwater seep in. When Foxy just smiled like he wasn't injured, Max yelled and hit him again.

"That's the spirit!" Foxy cried out licking the blood that was dripping down from his head. "Violence solves everything, doesn't it?"

Max went in for a third blow, but Foxy stopped him and twisted his arm to the point where Max was forced to drop the metal bar. Immediately, Max ran past Foxy into the bedroom and out the door to the apartment which was open.

"You can't run from me forever!" Foxy yelled and took off after Max.

###

The two eventually made their way onto the roof, where the sky was still pouring buckets of water down. Foxy put his hood up but the water seeped in and sparks flew from his body but he ignored it. Max, on the other hand, backed away slowly keeping a safe distance from Foxy.

"So this is what you humans call 'rain,'" Foxy murmured watching as the rain dripped from his hook hand. "I can see why you don't like it, and yet…it's so beautiful to watch."

While Foxy was distracted, Max hid behind a fan and tried to call for help on his wrist-phone. But Foxy found him forcing Max toward the edge of the building. He briefly looked down and saw a long drop all the way down to the alley below.

"There's nowhere to go, human," Foxy said pointing his hooked hand at Max. "Surrender now and I will kill you quickly."

Max looked from Foxy to the alley and said, "Well f**k you."

Then to Foxy's surprise, Max let himself fall off the building.

"That was disappointing," Foxy said to himself and then his ears perked up when he heard a quiet groan.

Curious, Foxy walked slowly to the building's edge, feeling his mechanical joints move slower and more rigid than before. He looked down and saw Max hanging onto a loose brick with his good hand. At that moment, Foxy laughed so hard that his stomach started hurting.

"You crack me up, human," Foxy said wiping away artificial tears of laughter coming from his only functioning eye which had returned back to a normal green iris with white around it. "You're a coward, through and through, yet you continuously risk your life. What's your motivation?"

Max said nothing, continuing to hold on.

"Is there someone special in your life?" Foxy wondered, lightly tapping the end of his hook hand to the side of his mouth. "Maybe a parent, a child, or…a girlfriend, perhaps?"

Surprised, Max accidentally let his hand slip. But to his shock, Foxy caught it with his mechanical hand. Then Foxy lifted Max into the air with the slightest of ease and tossed him onto the roof. While Max backed into the fan again, Foxy walked slowly towards him and then sat down a few feet from Max.

"I may be a machine, but love is something I think I can comprehend," Foxy said, and coughed again but more deeply as sparks continued to fly from his body. "It's a wonderful feeling that wells up inside you, that can't be satisfied no matter how much you try to ignore it."

In response, Max just stared at him.

"And you know what the best part about love is?" Foxy shoulders slumped and his breathing became heavier. "It can happen to anything and anyone. What Mangle and I shared…that was love. You wouldn't know, of course, since you killed Mangle but I can see that you're in love with someone too."

Again, Max didn't speak.

"Life's a precious gift," Foxy murmured as his head started to tilt forward. "I may be dying, but don't forget…that she, or whoever it is, loves you…too…"

Then as the rain ceased and the clouds started to part, Foxy closed his one good eye and became rigid as a statue. Max blinked for a few moments, then he got up and touched Foxy. He didn't move, and no breathing noises came from him either.

To be continued…


	16. Chapter 16: Pursuit and Getaway

**This is the last chapter and then there'll be an epilogue. Thank you for reading, following, and reviewing my fanfic up till now!**

Chapter 16: Pursuit and Getaway

" _So you 'dismantled' Mangle, and then Foxy just…died?_ " The Phone Guy sounded very confused on the other end of Max's wrist-phone as he was driving away from the apartment with Mangle and Foxy's bodies in the trunk. " _How?_ "

"It was raining, and I guess Animatronics aren't waterproof," Max replied solemnly.

" _I see_." The Phone Guy paused and then said, " _What was that thing you were going to tell me about before, something about the Animatronics going on a quest?_ "

"It's nothing, you wouldn't understand."

" _You sure?_ "

"You'd think I'm crazy if I told you."

" _Try me._ "

So Max told the Phone Guy everything Chichi told him about the Phone Guy, the child murders, and the spirits that supposedly haunted the Animatronics up to the present day. The Phone Guy was silent the whole time, even when Max briefly hung up to dispose Foxy and Mangle's bodies at the Junkyard. It was a quiet place near the train tracks where scraps of metal and discarded items piled up high and barely a soul was there most of the time. After Max had finished up, he got another call from the Phone Guy and answered it.

" _I've been doing some thinking about your story, and I got to ask this: was Chichi the one who told you these things?_ "

Max hesitated and then he said, "Yeah."

" _When did you last see her?_ "

"At the Pirate's Cove Motel."

" _Do you know where she went?_ "

"No. Why do you ask?"

The Phone Guy briefly sighed and said, " _Before our employer Fred Bernstein the Third was brutally murdered, he left a voicemail telling me that he had changed the initial contract he assigned regarding the runaway Animatronics._ "

"What did he change?" Max asked nervously.

" _He said that the Repairman who finds Chichi and brings her safely home will be rewarded with the amount on all the Animatronics who escaped regardless of who 'dismantled' them first, but should he unexpectedly die that Repairman must 'dismantle' Chichi just like any other Animatronic and then be rewarded._ "

Max silently cursed and then asked, "Where's Franz?"

" _He left as soon as I told him the message._ "

"Did he say where he was going?"

" _He didn't say_."

"S**t!" Max immediately hung up and drove away.

###

As the clouds parted revealing a night sky, Max decided to head back to his apartment and sleep for a little while before taking up the search for Chichi. But when he got there, Max noticed a sweet but familiar scent lingering around the door. Curious, Max opened the door quietly and picked up the gun in his good hand while placing the other hand with the broken fingers, which were now wrapped in bandages he took from his First-Aid kit in the car, in his pocket. Something moved underneath his bed, causing Max to move closer. He lifted up the covers slightly and saw Chichi sleeping underneath with a peaceful look on her face.

Remembering Fred's voicemail as told to him by the Phone Guy, Max pointed his gun at Chichi's forehead. He tried to pull the trigger, but his finger refused to move. Then Max remembered what Foxy said, and lowered the gun slowly. He then leaned down and softly kissed Chichi on the mouth, which woke her up.

"I knew you'd be back eventually," Chichi said smiling. "Sorry I broke into your flat."

"Chichi," Max said kissing her again. "Do you trust me?"

In response, Chichi nodded. "I trust you."

"Good, then let's go." Max left the bedside and monitored the door closely.

"Where to?" Chichi asked getting up from underneath the covers dressed in the same clothes she was in before Max left the motel.

"Out of town," Max replied. "Your boss decided to change the contract and have you killed should he unexpectedly die."

"Then he must've known," Chichi murmured.

"Knew what?" Max asked.

Chichi reached into her breast-pocket and pulled out a small flash-drive with a pixelated yellow rabbit's head drawn onto its surface. "I took the information he had on the Purple Guy and the child murders before running away. He probably didn't want me to use it for my own purposes."

"Which is?"

"To find the Purple Guy, of course, and put an end to the suffering that the spirits inside me and all the other Animatronics have to go through."

"But the spirits can't come back if their hosts have been destroyed, right?"

"No, they just possess the next Animatronic model once the previous one's destroyed."

"So it's a never-ending cycle, then."

"That's what I've been trying to tell you, and if we don't stop it the children will never find peace and more innocent people will get hurt."

"Or killed," Franz said, suddenly appearing in the doorway with his gun pointed at Chichi. "But what's one more death when there's a lot of money involved?"

"Franz!" Max said and pointed his gun at the young man. "How did you know Chichi was here?"

"The Phone Guy told me about your little 'sleepover' with Chichi in the motel, so I figured you had fallen in love with her and told her to stay at your apartment till this Animatronic hunt cooled down."

"I did no such thing!" Max snapped. "Chichi broke in of her own free-will."

"Animatronics don't have free-will. They follow their programming." Franz looked at Chichi and said, "You were sent here under Fred's orders, right?"

"What? No," Chichi said, though she averted her gaze.

"I don't know what that rich creep was planning, but I'm not going to let your charms fool me," Franz responded pulling the lock off the trigger. "Underneath that pretty face you're just a mesh of wires and metal."

Before the first bullet fired, Max instinctively fired his gun. It went straight through Franz's forehead and out the back of his skull. His body jittered from the electrical pulses of the bullet before dropping dead onto the carpeted floor. Max expected sparks to fly from Franz's body, but all that came out was a growing pool of red blood.

"You killed him," Chichi murmured. "Why did you have to?"

"I don't know, I—

"We have to leave now," Chichi said grabbing Max's shoulder. "Before the neighbors call the police."

"You're right," Max said, trying to sound calm. "The sooner we leave the better."

Max put his gun away and put some leather gloves on before dragging Franz's limp body into the hallway. While Chichi gathered her things and went quietly down the stairs to Max's car, Max took Franz's body to the rooftop, fired a bullet from Franz's gun and placed it back in Franz's hand, then he tried to clean the carpet as best he could when a knock came from his door.

" _Mister Schmidt,_ " said a middle-aged female voice from the other side.

"Yes, Ms. Fairchild," Max said steadying his voice.

" _I thought I heard a gunshot coming from your room. Is everything all right?_ "

"Fine, Ms. Fairchild, nothing's wrong."

" _Are you hurt?_ "

"No, Ms. Fairchild, I'm fine."

" _Maybe I was hearing things. My ears aren't as sharp as they used to be._ "

"Probably."

" _Well, goodnight, Mister Schmidt._ "

"Goodnight."

As the footsteps faded out, Max decided to cover the blood-stains on his carpet with a thick rug he usually placed next to his bed. Then he opened the door cautiously, looked around to make sure no one was around, and then he walked to the elevator. Outside, he got into the driver's seat and turned on the car while Chichi's sour face watched him.

"You took forever," Chichi said folding her arms. "I was starting to get worried."

"Had a hold-up with one of my neighbors," Max said as he drove the hover-car steadily off the ground.

"Did she see you?" Chichi asked.

"No, she just approached my door and asked me a few questions about the gunshot. I convinced her she was hearing things, and then she left."

"Well that's good, but she's bound to find out sooner or later that what she heard was real."

"But by the time she does, we'll be far away from here."

"Yes," Chichi said and placed her head on Max's shoulder. "Where no one will trouble us."

"So you have a place in mind?"

"The ruins of Freddy's Fright," Chichi answered. "From there, I should be able to figure out where the Purple Guy went."

To be concluded…


	17. Epilogue: Playtime's Over

**This is the last chapter of my fanfic! Thank you so much for supporting this, guys!**

Epilogue: Playtime's Over

It had been six years since Max Schmidt and Chichi, also known as Toy Chica, had left the city and gone to look for the Purple Guy in a small town where Freddy's Fright once stood. Nothing more than a scorched acre of land due to the unexpected fire that destroyed it before opening day, the two went from there into the forest and searched every corner of it to find the remains of an Animatronic known as Springtrap which according to Chichi's data held the spirit of the Purple Guy. In that time, Max had learned a great deal about the Purple Guy himself, though his true name and motivation for the child murders still remained a mystery.

Apparently he started working as a mascot handler for Fredbear's Diner, the predecessor of Freddy Fazbear's, where a child was murdered and the restaurant was forced to close. Then Fredbear's Diner sold itself to Fazbear Entertainment which gave birth to the Freddy Fazbear's pizzerias which the Purple Guy worked at as well while secretly killing numerous children at each location. While the Purple Guy was never caught, rumors were spreading as the Animatronics became possessed by the spirits of the dead children and caused some unusual 'accidents' to happen. Eventually, the pizzerias were discontinued but Fazbear Entertainment wasn't done. They tried to make money off the rumors that had spread about the pizzerias in the form of Freddy's Fright which was intended to be a horror-themed attraction. But the fire ruined it for them, so Fazbear Entertainment recovered their loses and then invested into the new chain known as Freddy's Café where the Animatronics were human as opposed to animal. But the strangest thing besides the fire was that the sole surviving Animatronic officially known as Spring Bonnie from Fredbear's Diner and the first Freddy Fazbear's location, which the security guard had called Springtrap, was unaccounted for.

Chichi herself was managing to hold up fine, despite the expiration date on her programming coming up, and yet in all the years they spent together Max felt he knew just as much about her as he did when they met. Today the two were scouting the edges of the forest on the other side far from the town. It was getting close to nightfall when Max saw what looked to be a cabin at the top of a hill. Chichi started to falter and hold the side of her head, causing Max to help her.

"Are you feeling something?" Max asked.

"Yes," Chichi said wearily. "I can feel his presence inside that cabin."

"Then let's go," Max said and eagerly made his way toward the hill.

"Not so fast."

Max and Chichi looked at the trees that lined the bottom of the hill and saw two figures emerging from behind them. One was a tall man wearing a black top-hat, a brown vest over a white dress-shirt, brown slacks, and shiny brown shoes. The other was a woman who was a little overweight, with medium blonde hair, wearing a yellow short-sleeved dress with an apron that had the words 'Let's Eat!' stitched into it, long yellow stockings, and orange slippers. Both of them wielded guns in their hands and while the man had bear ears sticking out from underneath his top-hat the woman had a hint of feathers on the top of her head.

"Freddy, Chica," Chichi said nervously. "What are you doing here?"

"We're here to take you back," Freddy said sternly.

"Otherwise we'll have to kill you, including your boyfriend," Chica added pointing her gun at Max.

"Why are you doing this?" Chichi asked. "Don't you realize the Purple Guy is in that cabin above you?"

"We know," Freddy said reluctantly.

"Because we found him first, and decided to use him to lure you here," Chica added.

"Like a fish to a hook," Max murmured.

"Are you taking me back to Fred Bernstein?"

"Indeed," Freddy answered.

"But I thought he was dead."

"Physically, yes, but he replicated his mind onto a memory chip which was placed in the newest Animatronic model which has yet to be released," Freddy said and stepped aside as something burst through the cabin door and rushed past him.

The thing was so fast that Max barely saw it in the growing dusk but when it stopped the thing had lifted Chichi off the ground and was chocking her. What Max saw was a young man in his twenties with sandy blond hair, wearing a yellow dress-shirt under a gold vest with a black tie, gold slacks, shiny gold shoes, and yellow rabbit ears sticking out from his head. It turned its head ninety degrees to face Max who noticed that its eyes were the same shifty black ones that Fred Bernstein had.

"Hello, Mr. Schmidt," the thing said in Fred's voice. "Long time no see."

" _Fred!_ " Chichi exclaimed though she sounded raspy. " _What have you done?_ "

"Its Spring Bonnie now, my dear," the rabbit-eared man said. "And what I've done is self-preservation at its finest. By placing my consciousness inside an Animatronic body, I not only live longer but also it allows me to deal with runaway Animatronics such as yourself promptly."

"But you realize that Animatronics can only last six years, Fred," Max said. "So you're going to die soon."

"It doesn't matter, now that I have what I want," Spring Bonnie said, then his head started to twitch slightly.

"Is something wrong, Mr. Bernstein?" Freddy wondered.

"Nothing, just a little bugging in the program," Spring Bonnie said but even as he spoke his eyes started to turn black and white.

"Are you sure it's a bug?" Max asked snidely as he pulled out the gun he took with him. "Could be a ghost."

"Shut up!" Spring Bonnie shouted as his eyes returned to normal. "There are no such things as ghosts! Everyone knows that!"

"You can't fool me," Max responded. "Your data says otherwise."

"Why, you—

"No," Chica suddenly muttered, feeling her head. "It's happening again."

"Same here," Freddy said doing the same motion as Chica.

" _What_ _'_ _s happening_ _…_ _to them?_ " Chichi asked, struggling against Spring Bonnie's grasp.

"They're responding to the…" Spring Bonnie's eyes flickered again before he answered. "Ghost that's inside me, but this machine has a device inside that emits a high-frequency signal that represses ghost energies."

" _Then why can I sense_ _—_

"Because only Freddy and Chica…were reprogrammed to be repressed by the signal while you… haven't…"

Spring Bonnie suddenly let out a loud shriek as he gripped Chichi's neck tighter and his eyes went from black and white to red and black. Max immediately fired a bullet at Spring Bonnie's arm causing him to let go off Chichi due to the electrical pulses coming from the bullet. While Freddy and Chica fell to their knees moaning, Max helped Chichi up as Spring Bonnie continued to scream in his own voice. But then his voice changed, becoming deeper with an electrical vibration to it. Spring Bonnie then stopped screaming and instead let out a series of quiet but audible laughs.

" _ **Did you really think that would kill me?**_ " Spring Bonnie said, looking at Max with a tilted head and eyes that were glowing red with skull-shaped pupils while the whites were red. " _ **You**_ _ **'**_ _ **re going to have to try harder.**_ "

"Are you…the Purple Guy?" Chichi said as her voice returned to normal.

" _ **Yes, that name does sound familiar,**_ " Spring Bonnie said walking slowly towards Chichi. " _ **You wouldn**_ _ **'**_ _ **t happen to be possessed by the spirit of one of those darn kids, would you?**_ "

In response, Chichi's eyes turned black and white letting out a blood-curdling scream as she leaped up and tackled Spring Bonnie.

" _ **That**_ _ **'**_ _ **s it,**_ " Spring Bonnie murmured lying on the grass. " _ **Kill me, end the suffering.**_ "

"Don't, Chichi!" Max said backing away. "There's something he's planning!"

But Chichi didn't respond and instead she started tearing Spring Bonnie's broken arm. He didn't struggle and instead reached for something in his vest pocket. Meanwhile, Freddy and Chica's eyes had changed to the same color as Chichi's and they charged at Spring Bonnie too as ear-piercing screams escaped their throats. By the time they tackled him, Spring Bonnie pressed something and there was a fiery explosion that followed. Max ducked behind a tree as the blast swept the area, setting the grass and nearby bushes on fire. When it was over, Max's ears were bleeding and his legs were wobbly. All that was left of the Animatronics was pieces of scorched metal and charred clothing.

Then to Max's amazement, three white apparitions appeared above the wreckage. They appeared in the form of small children that were faintly outlined wearing masks that resembled a chicken, a bear, and another chicken with pink cheeks. Next to them appeared other children with similar masks, some resembling foxes, rabbits, even human faces. Once they were all gathered, they reached their small hands down toward the remains of Spring Bonnie and pulled something out. It was a tall man wearing a faintly purple security guard uniform and hat, and though his eyes couldn't be seen his mouth was wide open. The children then took turns tearing him apart limb from limb while he screamed in agony as his torn parts sank into the ground below. When all of the man's parts had vanished, the children removed their masks in unison and turned to Max.

" _Thanks, Mister,_ " said a boy with green eyes.

" _You really saved us,_ " responded a boy wearing a striped shirt.

" _I guess not all grown-ups are bad, after all,_ " replied a blond-haired girl who turned to a grumpy-looking boy with chestnut-brown hair. " _See? I told you!_ "

" _Whatever,_ " answered the chestnut-haired boy. " _He_ _'_ _s still a grown-up_."

" _So now that the Purple Guy is gone, we all get to go home, right?_ " asked a little girl with short blonde hair.

" _Yeah, I think so,_ " a boy with brown hair said thoughtfully.

" _But where is home?_ " asked another blonde girl who was a little taller than the other one.

A faint light suddenly surrounded the children and they began to vanish one by one.

" _Yay! We_ _'_ _re going home!_ " cried the first blonde-haired girl as she vanished.

" _About time,_ " said the grumpy boy.

" _Can_ _'_ _t wait to see my parents again!_ " said a chubby little boy with a balloon.

" _I wonder what mom_ _'_ _s cooking for dinner tonight_ ," wondered a small boy with shorter brown hair than the other boy.

" _Dad will be so happy to see me,_ " said a boy wearing a small bow-tie.

Soon all the children were gone except for the little girl with the short blonde hair. She flew toward Max and placed something in his hand. He felt nothing as her tiny hand slipped through his, but then he felt something light and metallic in his palm.

" _Just something of Chichi_ _'_ _s to remember her by,_ " said the little girl sadly. " _Goodbye, Mister, and thanks again._ "

Before Max could say something, the little girl vanished in the twilight. Immediately, Max turned on a flashlight from his pocket and saw a small scorched chip in his hand. There was faint writing on the outside, but Max could make out the name 'Chichi' on it. Clutching the chip tightly, Max lowered himself to the ground and cried softly for several hours as small stars appeared in the night sky.

The End


End file.
